Naruto: Flashfire
by Forsaken and Darklost
Summary: fusion Naruto/Teen Titans. Before the Fourth Hokage faced Kyuubi, he assigned a special group to over see Naruto's safety. Now watch as these people help and raise him to become the most powerful shinobi in history. semi-dark. pairings: Naruto/Ino.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not known Naruto or Teen Titans; they are the rightful property of Masashi Kishimoto, Shonen Jump and DC, Cartoon Network. Any rights I may have to this story are the plot and my own character: Ifrit.

A/N: This story just popped into my overworking mind and I felt compiled to write it, just to see what everyone thought of it. Depending on everyone's reaction, I'll gage on how much time I'll spend working on this fanfic. I hope it was worth the time, and I also hope you enjoy it. Now that's enough out of me as I tend to ramble, so on with the story!

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**Flash meeting**

There were many things hidden during Konoha's darkest hours. More than just the death of one of its brightest, most talented and beloved Hokages to the most powerful Bijuu to ever exist, the nine-tailed demon fox: Kyuubi no Yoko. The official story was that the Fourth Hokage sacrificed himself by performing a powerful jutsu that killed the demon fox. That was the official report. The real story was Konoha's deepest secret and they're most hated. The fox was not killed as they led the world to believe, it was sealed into an infant who was just born during the demon's rampage on Konoha. Now that child, who was labeled a hero by the Fourth Hokage himself for holding the demon in his body, had instead become the village's most hated and feared shame. Were it not for the Sandaime Hokage passing a law to prevent the child's demise and to enforce by death that no one was to inform the new generation of what the child held, or to tell the child himself of the demon dwelling inside him.

But what many did not know was that the sealing of the Kyuubi no Yoko wasn't the only action that transpired…

There was another course of action planned by the Fourth Hokage. He foresaw the opposite reaction the villagers would have on the boy and set it in motion before he confronted the fearsome demon. That other course of action was just returning from a mission out in Suna, grumbling silently as he followed the team of ANBU he had to accompany to _extract_ some sensitive information.

They were just returning from Tea country where a group of Rock-nin had tried to rob from the Fire Daimyo, but in truth, they were after Konoha's blueprints, looking for any architectural weaknesses in their defensives for a potential attack. It was rather easy to catch up to them, as they predicted the Rock-nin to try and hide their tracks by going through the desert in Wind Country, but because of the semi-friendly relationships between Konoha and Suna, Village Hidden in the Sand, they were able to catch them and hold them in Suna long enough to be interrogated.

Konoha's top interrogator and renowned sadist, Morino Ibiki, had his hands full with a few Mist-nin that were caught along the Fire Country's border, and his subordinate, Mitarashi Anko, was also busy helping him crack the Mist-nin, so he sent out his apprentice, Ifrit…

Not much was known about Ifrit other than he had a odd skin pigment that made him look grey, like ash, and messy, magenta shaded hair that started out black as night and ended with crimson red locks. His eyes some said were his strongest feature, in which he took advantage of to intimate whoever he was interrogating. Like his hair, they mixed into two colors, starting out deep red around his iris and ending out with a orange hue around his pupil, giving him a menacing, wild look that made anyone who glance at them quiver. His eyes were even more frightening on account of the stoic expression he always wore. It was well known in the ANBU Black Ops that no one has ever seen a crack of emotion on his face, even when he was in the middle of an interrogation.

It frightened the Sand-nin present during Ifrit's interrogation how quickly he got them to spill all they knew to just an apprentice. But again, for a sixteen year old to gain the rank of Tokubetsu Jonin and become the apprentice of the feared Ibiki Morino, he had to be very talented. When he was done with them, they were executed and their remains were respectfully sent back to their village as a warning to the Tsuchikage of the Village Hidden in the Rock to think twice about plotting any kind of attack against Konoha.

As soon as that was done, Ifrit and the ANBU Black Ops that accompanied him returned to Konoha to inform the Sandaime of the Rock village's intent. They just entered the gate when Ifrit ordered one of the ANBU to take the scroll he already written for the Hokage to the Hokage's office. Grateful to have an excuse to get away from the intimating teenager, the ANBU and the other Black Ops rushed away to the tower. Ifrit grumbled as they left and opened his grey Tokubetsu issued trench coat and pulled out a pack of…soft mint peppermint sticks, exposing the black muscle shirt and standard Jonin pants he wore underneath the trench coat. Opening the pack, he tapped the bottom of it and one peppermint stick shot out of the pack, then caught it with his mouth when gravity caught the candy stick and brought it back down to him. He brushed a few of his messy locks away from his face, flashing the Leaf hitae-ite he wore over his forehead and started strolling down the road.

It was always his tradition when returning to Konoha from a mission to walk down the main street to let everyone know he was still alive. And always, when he did, he received wary glances mixed with hatred and caution. He hated the civilian portion of Konoha; actually he hated a lot of things, but mostly the civilian half of Konoha. Mostly, his hate lay in his earlier youth toward the civilian population…but he was in a semi-good mood thanks to seeing the disappointment in the faces of every older civilian he came across to dwell on past grudges.

He licked happily on his favorite treat as he continued his stroll and turned right at the third road he came to, heading to the dango stand to get some lunch before he made his own report to Ibiki. It was just as he was coming to the next turn that he caught a brief glimpse of blond hair before it disappeared down an alley. Ifrit halted from his original course and immediately headed toward t he alley the blonde ran down. He just got to it when his senses alerted him to four other presences running above him on the rooftops.

'_Those can't be ANBU. They're not hiding their chakra signature like them. Humph, must be normal Jonin…' _thought Ifrit, as he marched down the alley, when his eyes slowly widened. '_Wait…if they're not ANBU, then why are Jonin going after…?!'_

Ifrit instantly darted up to the rooftops and started pursuing the Jonin tracking the blonde.

'_Where the hell are the ANBU assigned to watch him?!'_ thought Ifrit angrily upon sensing no ANBU Black Ops at all around the current area. _'Damn, something's up!'_ he doubled his speed and quickly found the small group of Jonin bearing down on the blonde, who had accidently, ran down another alleyway with a dead end.

He looked down witnessing the scene while hiding his chakra to keep his presence unknown by the Jonin below. His sensitive ears easily picked up every word the people below him said as they began talking to the small blonde boy they caught.

"Finally got you, you little demon brat!" a Jonin with short brown hair growled, pulling out a kunai from his thigh pouch.

"I-I'm sorry! I was just hungry…I didn't mean to steal!" cried the little blonde, trembling in fright of the kunai.

"We don't care about what you stole!" the second Jonin sneered, also drawing out a kunai and spinning it on his index finger. "We're here to wipe your taint from our village for good!"

Ifrit's eyes narrowed and filled with an intense hate, but he continued to stay hidden and wait, wondering when the hell the ANBU assigned to watch the demon vessel would show up.

He watched as the third Jonin marched right up to the blonde and slammed his foot into the boy's stomach, adding chakra into his leg enough to break two of the boy's ribs. "Let's not waste any more time on this piece of scum! We don't have much time before the ANBU will come back!"

Ifrit's eyes widened in surprise. _'No ANBU? Shit!' _

He then leapt from his hiding spot and landed behind the Jonin about to kick the boy once more. Acting before the other three could do anything; Ifrit channeled chakra into his arm and slammed his hand right into the back of the Jonin's head, thrusting it right through the brick wall that made up the dead end of the alley. He slowly withdrew his hand from the hole, letting the dead Jonin hang limply against the wall where his head was still buried in, and turned to face the shocked Jonin.

"Punishment for breaking the Sandaime's law is death," growled Ifrit lowly, glaring with hate at the three Jonin.

"You son of a—?" the first Jonin with brown hair was cut off when he suddenly burst into flames.

The other two Jonin were too distracted by their burning comrade to see Ifrit rush right at them and strike one of them in the sternum with a palm thrust, then wheeled on his right heel and kicked the other over the head, knocking them both unconscious.

"…You'll wish you died like your two friends after Ibiki and I get done with you," promised Ifrit, as he pulled out some ninja wire and tied the two Jonin up, not caring the wire would lacerate their cloths and their skin.

Ifrit dusted his hands off and turned to the blonde, seeing him staring at him in fear and leaning over in pain. Ifrit walked over to the small boy and kneeled down to him, placing one hand on the boy's trembling shoulder.

"I'm not here to hurt you," reassured Ifrit.

"…You're lying," whimpered the boy, too scared of him to shake his hand off his shoulder. "…You'll hurt me too when you think I believe you…that's what some have already done."

Ifrit nearly gasped but held his emotionless expression and replied, "What makes you think I'm lying?"

"Everyone has lied to me…well, except the old man," replied the small boy. "Everyone else just acts nice long enough to try and hurt me."

A heated rage slowly filled Ifrit and revealed itself in his eyes when they began glowing red. He instantly looked away so not to scare the blonde further or let him misinterpret the reason they glowed. When he had control of his anger, he brought his stoic eyes down on the boy.

"I'm different," replied Ifrit softly. "Come on. We're going to the Hokage's office right now."

"You're taking me to the old man?" murmured the blonde in surprise before his face showed one of suspicion.

That look pained Ifrit. It wasn't natural for a small five-year-old boy to be so suspicious. That look reminded him too much of how he looked when he was younger…

"Whatever you think, I'm not trying to trick you," said Ifrit, reaching into his coat.

The boy immediately started backing away from him, clawing at the wall behind him to look for an escape route. Ifrit frowned as he pulled out his pack of peppermints and took out a peppermint stick and presented it to the child, thinking a piece of candy might ease him.

His offered peppermint stick was met with a look of malice. "Now you're trying to offer me candy?"

"Yes, is there a problem?" asked Ifrit, generally curious as to why this would anger the demon vessel.

"That's the same trick those Jonin tried to use to make me follow them after they caught me taking some fruit!" cried the blonde. "When I refused, they got angry and started chasing me!" He suddenly cried out in pain when his yelling caused his broken ribs to move and cough up blood.

Ifrit grew more concerned and dropped the peppermint and quickly picked up the boy, who tried to struggle against him, but only managed to cause himself more pain.

"Hold on, we're going to get you help!" said Ifrit and he shushined straight to the Hokage's office, vanishing from the alley in a swirl of red flames.

They both reappeared right in front of Sarutobi's desk as he was just about to read the scroll Ifrit had the ANBU deliver to him.

"Ifrit?! What is the matter?" the old man demanded, then halted when he saw the blonde child groaning in pain in Ifrit's arms.

"Quickly! Take him to the hospital!" ordered Sarutobi to the ANBU who had drawn his sword at the sudden intrusion.

Sheathing his sword, the ANBU obeyed his Hokage and took the blond out of Ifrit's arms and shushined away to the Hospital.

"Ifrit, what happened to Naruto? Why was he injured?" wondered Sarutobi in deep concern over his unofficial grandson.

Ifrit immediately came to attention and saluted him. "I was on my way to get some lunch and then make my personal report to Ibiki-sensei when I spotted Naruto running down an alley. I hadn't thought much of it until I sensed he was being followed. When I didn't see any ANBU around the area, I decided to follow him and saw the people tracking him trap Naruto at a dead end and were about to kill him."

"Where were the ANBU assigned to guard the boy?" replied Sarutobi, leaning back in his chair and puffing faster on his pipe.

"Nowhere, not even when the group began attacking the boy," answered Ifrit with a dead tone voice. "The people that were tracking Naruto knew that no ANBU where going to show up and were going to use that time to dispose of him."

Sarutobi grimaced and narrowed his eyes in thought. "I see…continue, Ifrit."

"Upon hearing that no ANBU were going to appear, I intervened and killed two of them and knocked out the remaining two for interrogation," finished Ifrit, tightening his fist. "I tied up the two survivors and hurried here when I saw the boy had been hurt severely."

"I'll send ANBU to pick up the two and let Ibiki handle them," said Sarutobi, puffing slightly more on his pipe. "Is there anything else you can tell me about these attackers?"

"Yes, Hokage…all four of them were Jonin," revealed Ifrit, his eyes flashing briefly with glowing hatred.

Sarutobi nearly dropped his pipe. "Jonin?! You can't be serious. I might have expected some drunken civilians, maybe even a Chunin…but four Jonin?"

"They were wearing standard Jonin gear and they tracked the boy quickly enough like any Jonin would," informed Ifrit.

"I don't understand why there were no ANBU around, but I will see to the reason why later!" The Sandaime stood up from his desk and motioned for Ifrit to follow him as he started walking out of his office. "I am glad that you were there to stop them, Ifrit. You have my thanks."

"None are needed," said Ifrit blankly. "They broke your law and attacked a citizen of Konoha. I only ask that I might help Ibiki in their _interrogation_…"

The old Hokage glanced at Ifrit out of the corner of his eye with concern. He wasn't happy to see such a young man in the ranks of the ANBU, it was unsettling to see such coldness and unfeeling in someone who just a teenager working in the Torture & Interrogation Division.

"I will let Ibiki decide on that, Ifrit," replied the Sandaime. "But I wonder why you are so interested. You've never shown any personal interest in anything until now." He smirked when he saw the ash-skinned teenager flinch.

"…I'm displeased," said Ifrit carefully.

"Displeased?" repeated Sarutobi, opening the door and walking down the hall. "What made you so displeased that you would like to interrogate fellow Shinobi?"

"They lost the respect of being Konoha Shinobi when they intentionally broke your law. But my main reason is that they attacked him because of something he has no control over…" admitted Ifrit, trying to keep his burning rage from surfacing. There were many things Ifrit was good at, but his rage was the only thing he could never truly master. He was easily angered and had to fight daily to keep his anger from affecting his work and the few people he came to respect in the ANBU Torture & Interrogation Division.

If he let it slip once, especially when he was in the middle of interrogating a prisoner, he would lose his edge at extracting any information over him. If they sensed weakness in their torturer, then it didn't matter what method he'd use on them. It was the one thing that Ibiki was still helping him handle and the reason he hadn't become his second-in-command yet.

The Hokage and Ifrit arrived to the hospital after Sarutobi left some orders with his secretary to inform Ibiki of some new prisoners to play with, and to have him investigate the lack of ANBU around the area Naruto was attacked. Ifrit never showed it, but he grinned on the inside at the thought of how happy his sensei would be when he learned he was going to handle traitors. Ifrit had quickly learned during his earlier apprenticeship with the scarred Jonin was that he despised anyone who betrayed their Hokage. He would always give the traitors his 'special' treatment before he actually started worming any information out of them. The young apprentice would have chuckled at the image of a happy Ibiki if he wasn't worried about Naruto's status.

The Sandaime immediately asked for the room that Naruto was in from the receptionist at the front desk. Upon hearing the demon vessel's name, the receptionist froze and began rummaging through her documents.

"I-I'm not exactly sure which room the…boy had been put in. I'll have someone go and check on which room he has been put in right away, Lord Hokage!" stuttered the receptionist.

The old Hokage frowned and tapped his now extinguished pipe on his chin. "Ifrit, go get some ANBU, I'd like to have some guarding Naruto until this matter is cleared up…Ifrit?" He turned and found the young apprentice gone. He just sighed and rubbed the side of his head, hoping to stop the headache forming. "I'm getting too old for all this…"

The apprentice had left his lord to find Naruto himself. He had a bad feeling about the receptionist from the way she seemed so nervous in front of the Hokage. Another clue he picked up was the room Naruto would be put in would have been immediately reported to inform the Hokage when he came to visit…as were the orders he placed on the Hospital staff.

Ifrit entered an empty room and preformed a henge to make himself look like one of the doctors; one he hoped wasn't on duty at the moment. He then exited the room and quickly went to the fourth floor where the ER was stationed, but he didn't go there, he went straight to the resource nurse on that floor.

"Where's Nurse Roth?" asked the fake doctor.

"Nurse Roth?" replied the resource nurse, pondering for a moment. "Oh, she's working right now. I think she's in room two-thirty-five."

He grunted a thank you at her and marched quickly to the room. Upon entering the room, the nurse he sought for was serving lunch for an elderly patient. He cleared his throat to gain her attention, which she quickly looked up at him with cool blue eyes, brushing a stray lock of brunette hair off her soft round shaped face, briefly catching a look of distain in her eyes before they smoothed out to professional cool eyes.

"Is there anything I can do for you, Doctor?" the nurse said pleasantly.

Ifrit narrowed his eyes in thought at her reaction and then let the henge drop around his eyes, letting her see their real color. The nurse widened her own for a brief moment and nodded. She finished serving the elderly patient his food and followed Ifrit out of the room. They marched down the hallway to the elevator, and right before they entered, the nurse preformed a hand sign and made a shadow clone of herself. The clone nodded to the both of them and left to finish her duties on the floor. The two then entered an elevator and waited till it closed, and pressed the stop button right as it was moving to a floor, before addressing each other

"What is going on, Ifrit?" asked Roth.

"Naruto was just admitted into this hospital, but the receptionist there is acting funny. I think she's delaying the Hokage from seeing Naruto right away, and I suspect foul play going on," replied the disguised apprentice.

"Naruto!" gasped Roth softly, then quickly regained control of her face and showed the same stoic eyes as he. "What are your orders?"

"Find Naruto and make sure he is safe and well," replied Ifrit in a commanding tone. "If we find anyone trying to harm him or move him to another location outside this hospital, we terminate at once. We cannot allow the Fourth's son to be hurt anymore…"

"Anymore?" wondered Roth. "Isn't the Third Hokage making sure he's okay?"

"He was or he thought he was," said Ifrit, staring at the floor numbers above the door. "I just dispatched four Jonins that had been tracking the boy down. What was more perplexing was the lack of ANBU in the area, and even more was that the Jonin tracking Naruto were well aware no one would show up to protect the boy."

Roth folded her arms smoothly under her chest, rubbing her chin in thought. "Do you suspect the Council is up to something?"

"I suspect that bastard Danzo," admitted Ifrit, his eyes briefly glowing red. "He might think he tricked the Hokage, but we both know he has his Ne members carefully placed amongst the ranks in the ANBU Black Ops. This could be a ploy to trick the Third long enough to allow his Ne to sneak away with Naruto…you already know what that bastard would do with Naruto if he succeeded in getting his hands on him."

Roth locked her eyes onto his and the two shared a silent, uncomfortable understanding. Ifrit was the first to break the moment by looking slightly away. "We need to find him now. We cannot afford any more time…"

She looked as if she wanted to say more to him, but she silently agreed and start down on the elevator floor and assumed what looked like a meditative pose and closed her eyes and began chanting. "_Azarath Metrion Zinthos!_"

Her eyes opened up and were glowing black with a rim of white flicking around it, then from her body shot up a black entity in the form of a raven and disappeared through the elevator ceiling. Ifrit stood in silence as he waited for her to finish her search of the hospital with her soulself; amazing him once more on how she could project her soul and scour any distances in a matter of moments. Before he started to worry about Naruto, the soulself returned to her body and she stood up quickly.

"He's being held on the top floor, in a room guarded by two ANBU, they seem to be waiting for the doctor to finish patching his injuries…but from what I saw, he is purposely doing a poor job of it," informed Roth with a hint of animosity. "Oh, and you better which your henge, Ifrit. The doctor you disguised yourself is the one working on Naruto."

Ifrit nodded and quickly switched his henge to look like a female nurse. "This should be better."

Roth raised an eyebrow and started up the elevator again and pressed the top floor's button. "If Beast Boy saw you henged like a girl, he'd never let you forget."

"That perv thinks too much with his instincts," retorted Ifrit, tapping an impatient foot. "He'd probably hit on me before that nose of his registered I was a male instead of a female."

Roth hid a smile and patted his arm. "He does have his good points."

"Not after what he tried to do to you after that party. I don't care if he does care for you, no one should spike their loved ones punch just to get into their pants," growled Ifrit, grinding his teeth somewhat together.

Roth blushed at the memory and quickly tried to suppress that embarrassing moment. "…Yeah, I guess you're right. But he was punished for it…"

"I don't hate him, Raven," replied Ifrit, using her real name. "I…I just…"

She placed her hand on his shoulder. "I know, Ifrit. You don't have to say anything…"

He broke his blank expression long enough to lift the corner of his mouth in a smile before it disappeared. She gave him her own brief smile and then the two schooled their looks when the elevator dinged and opened. The two walked out and Raven led him to the room where the two ANBU were guarding the door. The guards quickly noted their approach and halted them when they walked right up to them.

"Halt, no one except for the doctor is to enter this room," stated an ANBU with a hawk mask.

Ifrit bowed respectfully to the two ANBU. "We were called up here by the doctor."

The second ANBU who had a RAT mask started to draw his sword, but never got it out. The two ANBU disappeared into the floor, more importantly, the shadow in the shape of a raven that had formed under them.

Ifrit dropped his henge and was about to open the door, when Raven stopped him. "…Don't hurt the doctor…leave him to me."

Ifrit looked into her eyes and the two shared another silent understanding. He narrowed his eyes as they glowed softly. "Make him squirm…"

"I plan to," replied Raven, dropping the henge she had over her features. Her once blue eyes were now a solid shade of amethyst and her brunette hair switched to dark lavender. Her tanned skin shifted to same color as Ifrit's, only slightly lighter shade, and a red chakra gem appeared in the middle of her forehead. Her nurse outfit also disappeared, replaced with an ANBU outfit. She pulled out a Raven mask and put it on.

Ifrit henged himself one more time to look like an ANBU with a Tiger mask and changed his hair color to a shade of orange, and then said, "Quick and silent. We need to get Naruto back down the Sandaime before any Ne operatives show up."

Raven nodded and the two darted into the room. Raven went start to the doctor who never even had enough time to turn around when Raven used her chakra to mold bird-like talons around her hands, which she used to puncture his lower spine, ripping down into his hipbone and destroying his innards in that area and then a quick strike to the back of his neck. Ifrit wondered why she just didn't go for the neck first, as that would have instantly killed the doctor, but then he remembered the look that Raven gave him when she thought he was that doctor. Whatever that doctor did must have been bad for Raven to make him suffer before finishing him off.

Returning to his task, Ifrit went straight to Naruto, who was unconscious on a bed, with his midsection wrapped crudely in bandages. Any sympathy Ifrit had to the doctor was quickly gone. He made one motion with his hand to Raven, and she came over to Naruto and started examining him. As she was working on the blonde, Ifrit gazed at the remains of the doctor and they instantly burst into red flames and burned up all traces of it, not even leaving a scorch mark on the floor.

"He has three broken ribs, but they seem to be mending themselves thanks to the fox," said Raven as she ran her hands above the unconscious blonde. "He has traces of a drug compound in his blood I can't identify."

"Is it causing any harm to him?" asked Ifrit in worry.

"No, from what I'm seeing, the drug is keeping the fox from burning it off too quickly to keep Naruto under for some time," replied Raven. "He should wake up in a few hours. We have nothing to worry except getting him out of here."

"Then let's not waste any time," suggested Ifrit, leaning down and gently picking up the sleeping blonde.

They shushined out of the room; Ifrit vanishing in his red flames, and Raven in a swirl of darkness. They appeared on the first floor and approached the Sandaime who was looking very irritated and worried. Upon seeing the two, he marched over and quickly took Naruto out of Ifrit's arms.

"What happened!" ordered the old Hokage, looking terribly worried over the small child.

"Ifrit left to get Ibiki and sent us to scout the Hospital," replied Raven. "We found him on the top floor being guarded by unknown ANBU operatives that attacked us on sight. We had no choice but to eliminate them and get to the boy before whatever they planned could occur."

"Two ANBU were watching Naruto?" murmured Sarutobi, his eyes narrowing in deep thought. "I think I might know what is going on. Good work, you two. You are dismissed."

"Hai!" said the two disguised ANBU, saluting the Sandaime and quickly made their way out of the hospital.

Outside, they quickly found an alley to hide in and Ifrit dropped his henge. "I'll go back to ANBU HQ and get Ibiki. I want you to keep an eye on Naruto while he's in the hospital. I'll see what I can find out on my end of things." He started to leave, but then stopped as he remembered Raven's odd behavior toward the doctor. "…What's the deal with that doctor?"

Raven lowered her mask, indicating she was looking away from his face. "…He's been blackmailing some of the nurses on my floor and forcing them to do some horrible things against their will. I caught him looking into my records and tried to use the fact that my alias Roth is having some finical problems and tried threatening to have me fired if I didn't do certain duties for him. Before you ask, I didn't. He just came to me about it before he suddenly rushed off with those ANBU that we took care of."

Ifrit stiffened as he felt a wave of deep sadness and anger pour from his comrade. He quickly pulled her into his arms and the two embraced in a hug. She clinged to him in silent desperation, trying to hold back the tears that threatened to fall, some of the trash in the alleyway began to glow with black energy and began twisting into odd shapes or melting into puddles of slag.

"…I-I hate this village, Ifrit," admitted Raven softly. "It has just gotten worse when Namikaze-sensei died."

He shushed her and patted her back softly. "I do, too, Raven…but we have a mission here and we cannot do anything right now. We have to keep Naruto safe."

She forced herself to calm down and regain control of her strange power. "…I know, Ifrit. I just…I just wish we could be back with the others."

Ifrit nodded in agreement. "Once we're sure Naruto will be okay…then we can see them."

Raven sighed and pulled herself away from Ifrit and henged back into her nurse disguise. "I better get back to work. My clone's time is almost up…"

Ifrit brushed a hand over her locks and cupped her face. "I'll drop by when you get off work…we'll talk more about this then."

"Yeah," agreed Raven and she placed her hand over his before she shushined back into the hospital.

Ifrit sighed once more and shushined close to ANBU HQ and went to find Ibiki as he had told the Sandaime he would. It wasn't easy to get him to leave as he was in the middle of cracking the two Jonin that attacked Naruto. But when he told him that they may be more traitors at the Hospital, Ibiki quickly got Anko and some ANBU he trusted and they all headed to the hospital.

As soon as they did, Ifrit learned the old man had personally kept an eye on Naruto while the nurses and doctors tended properly to Naruto's wounds.

"Ibiki," said Sarutobi, chewing on the end of his unlit pipe.

"Yes, lord Hokage!" saluted Ibiki, approaching him quickly.

"I want you to investigate every ANBU that was supposed to be guarding Naruto today," said Sarutobi, never taking his eyes off the young boy as the hospital staff did their job. "And punish them if their stories for being missing aren't good enough."

"I'll see to it quickly, Lord Hokage," promised the scarred Jonin.

Before he could leave to begin, the old Hokage pulled him close to him so he could whisper into his ear. "I suspect that some members of ROOT were involved. I want you to keep an eye on all known members and one on anyone else that shows any signs of being with ROOT."

"You can be sure, Lord Hokage. I will find out and report my findings as soon as I can," whispered Ibiki, then bowed respectfully to the old man and quickly walked over to Ifrit and Anko who had been standing watch at the door of Naruto's room.

"You two, with me," ordered Ibiki, and then he pointed at two ANBU that were patrolling the hallway. "Make sure no one comes near the boy, even if I order you not to!"

The ANBU saluted the Chief Interrogator and went about making sure the whole floor was secure. Ibiki marched down to the lobby with Ifrit and Anko silently following him, and then stopped at the receptionist's desk. "Ifrit!"

The apprentice took one step forward. "Yes, Ibiki-sensei?"

"When did you suspect something amiss when you were here with the Hokage!" demanded Ibiki, making a point to nearly shout so the receptionist still sitting at her desk would flinch, which she did.

"When the receptionist began showing signs of reluctance when the Hokage asked her which room the Uzumaki boy was to be taken to," replied Ifrit, growling slightly to make his own voice more intimating.

"How did you know she was reluctant?" questioned Ibiki, smirking inwardly at how well his pupil played along with his plan.

"Her first sign was the change in her skin pigment that started paling at the sight of our Lord Hokage," continued Ifrit, keeping up his intimating tone. "Then her eyes began shifting slightly to avoid direct eye contact with either the Third or myself. When asked about the Uzumaki boy, she started rummaging through papers to buy her enough time to collect herself to make up an excuse. She then informed that she was not told yet of which room the boy had been placed. I deduced it was a lie as she had a hard time keeping her voice calm. I then concluded she was willingly withholding information to delay the Third long enough for whatever to transpire with the boy."

"T-That's a lie!" yelled the now frightened receptionist.

The Tokubetsu Jonin grinned inwardly, save for Anko who had no wish to hide her grin from the scared receptionist. They knew they had her extremely nervous now and knew she would begin to act irrationally of being accused in front of her fellow employees. Now all they had to do was push her just a bit more before she cracked, and Ifrit had just the trick to push her over.

He locked his bizarre eyes right on the receptionist and she started quivering in fear. "H-He told me to stall…" she fell back into her sit, trying to back away from Ifrit, but finding it impossible to break the eye contact between them, feeling her inner being be tormented with anguish and fear. "P-Please stop it!"

"Not till you tell us who told you to stall," growled Ibiki, not caring about the people who were beginning to protest about their actions. He didn't have any worry of them interfering as he knew his reputation would keep them from doing anything out of fear, and if someone did get brave enough, the ex-snake apprentice would be more than happy to deal with them accordingly.

"Please! No more! The doctor! Doctor Hian ordered me to! I had to do as he s-said!" whimpered the nurse, breaking out in tears.

Ifrit widened his eyes, still keeping them locked on hers. "Did this Doctor Hian use anything to force you to lie to the Third Hokage?"

"No! No, please, I can't tell anyone that!" cried the nurse, sobbing uncontrollably. "I can't let anyone know…it's too shameful…please don't make me tell you!"

Instantly, Ifrit let go of his hold on her and closed them, then started to walk away before the girl's anguish affected him too much. His unique skill was a double-edge sword, it allowed him to bring out whatever emotion he wanted a person to feel, but the cost was the backlash of those emotions. He'd literally feel their emotions run through him as if they were his own. Sometimes, if he used his eyes for too long, he'd take a 'piece' of their emotions into himself and would suffer from them until it worked itself out of him, leaving him angry and resentful.

"Ifrit, I did not order you to stop," reprimanded Ibiki.

"She's innocent, Ibiki-sensei," replied Ifrit, not looking at anyone. "Doctor Hian had been recently reported of abusing his position and blackmailing a number of employees for his personal service. I was going to bring this up to you Ibiki-sensei when I gave you my report on my latest mission."

"That asshole!" growled an enraged Anko, pulling out a kunai. "I'll rip his balls out!"

Ifrit grinned to himself. _'Already taken care of…'_ "I don't think you will, Anko-san. The ANBU who found Naruto found him, too with the boy and executed him along with the rogue ANBUs."

"And who were the two ANBU who did all this?" demanded Ibiki, wishing to know who for his report to the Hokage. "And how did you learn about Doctor Hian?"

"I think it was Tiger and Raven," replied Ifrit. "But I'm not sure. I was too concerned with finding you to really pay attention to who I asked to help locate the Uzumaki boy. As for Doctor Hian…an acquaintance of mine had informed be right before the attack on the Uzumaki boy." Normally, he didn't mind lying, but during his apprenticeship to Ibiki, he came to respect the man and hated to be misleading toward him, even if it was necessary to perform his real mission.

Ibiki stared at him sternly. "Next time make sure of whom you ask. You could have easily asked the wrong ANBU and they would have taken care of you before you got to me. You were just lucky that you asked the right ones."

Ifrit bowed his head to apologize. "Forgive me, Ibiki-sensei…I was worried for the boy."

For a moment, Ibiki's hard eyes soften toward his apprentice and then reached out and patted the boy's messy hair. "Just be more careful next time, Ifrit. I'd hate to lose someone who will let me retire early."

"Hai, Ibiki-sensei," replied Ifrit.

Ibiki immediately returned to his usual scary demeanor and turned to the nurse. "Next time a doctor is getting out of hand, let me know…I'll see that they're punished for mistreating their staff."

"H-Hai!" whimpered the still sobbing receptionist.

Ifrit gazed at the surrounding people, who upon seeing his intense gaze quickly dispersed and hurried back to their own affairs. He then apologized to the receptionist for bringing up the sensitive topic that the doctor was using against her, then left the hospital with his sensei and the snake mistress.

"I'm heading back to HQ to see what the hell is going on with our ANBU," said Ibiki. "Ifrit, since you've been a great assistance with extracting information in Suna and looking out for the Uzumaki kid, you can have the rest of the next three days off. I'll get the report of your mission from the Hokage, but I still expect your own report on the mission and on rescuing the Uzumaki kid, got it?"

"Hai-sensei, thank you," Ifrit replied blankly and started walking away from the two.

"Geez, doesn't that kid ever show a sign of gratitude?" murmured Anko when she was sure Ifrit was out of hearing range.

"I'd be worried if he started acting differently, Anko," replied Ibiki as he stuffed his hands into his pockets. "He just tormented a nurse by turning her own emotions against her, just to find out she was forced into doing it. Yeah, I'd feel like scum, too. And because he does, that's what makes him still human, and makes him right for our job."

Anko froze and stared in disbelief as the scarred Jonin marched on toward HQ. As long as she knew the chief interrogator of Konoha, she never once heard him compliment anyone…ever.

A grin slowly started to form on her lips. "Well, if he's got the big man impressed. I'll just have to keep my own eye on the boy." She placed a hand on her hip and started walking in the same direction that Ifrit took.

(In a Dango shop)

Ifrit sat at the farthest corner of the shop, leaning back in a seat and toying with a clean stick of dango he just finished. He stared at the other untouched dangos on his plate, using the one he ate to pick his teeth, looking at the clock hanging on the shop's wall. Everyone in the shop either ignored him or glared at him. One person actually looked ready to say something to him, but Ifrit instantly locked his eyes on that him and that person quickly changed his mind. The apprentice then returned his eyes to the clock.

"Hey there, weird eyes!" a perky, sardonic voice said.

"Anko-san, I'm not in the mood," replied Ifrit roughly.

"For what? I'm just here for the food," said Anko as she took a seat at his table and plucked one of the dangos off his plate and started munching on it.

Ifrit remained silent and kept his eyes on the clock. Anko took note and saw that it was nearly evening time, then looked back at him. "You waiting for something?"

"Someone," answered Ifrit.

"Oh, someone, huh?" mused Anko, biting a whole dango off her stick, eating it quickly. "Hmm, of everything I know about you, which isn't much as not many people do know you. I'll just have to deduce who you could be waiting for. It can't be Ibiki as he's busy looking into the whole ANBU affair. You don't have any friends as a lot of people seem to dislike you, for I don't know what reason. You can't be waiting on me…" She grinned seductively at him. "Are you?"

"No," said Ifrit flatly.

Anko pretended to be disappointed and returned to her own form of interrogation of the young Jonin. "Pity, you're missing out. Now, let's see who is left…Oh! I think I know…that acquaintance that told you about the naughty doctor."

She froze in fear when Ifrit brought his eyes down on her. "Don't go there, Anko-san…"

Trying to look unaffected by his stare, she worked on finishing her dango stick. "Oh, come on. You can't be so embarrassed about meeting this person, are you?"

He bore his eyes into her more. "It's not because I'm embarrassed, Anko-san. It's because I don't like people getting into my business."

"In our line of work? You got to be kidding," retorted Anko, stealing another dango from his plate. "We deal with other people's business all the time."

He sighed and reached into his trench coat and pulled out a peppermint stick. Right before he could place it in his mouth, it was suddenly snatched from his hand.

"Ooo, this looks good! What is it?" cued Anko, looking at the treat.

"It's a soft mint peppermint stick…something I found when I was in Suna," replied Ifrit, looking very pissed off of having his treat stolen from him. "Now give it back…they're hard to get."

"That just makes this all the tastier than!" replied Anko and ran her tongue all over the peppermint, her eyes sparkling when her taste buds registered the minty sweetness. "Mmm! This is good! Not as fabulous as dangos, but this is a nice second."

Ifrit's eyes blazed red before the flames in the dango shop's kitchen flared out of control. The chef and his other cooks ran around madly to put out the flame, wondering what could have caused it. Ifrit calmed down and gave up on his treat and returned to stare at the clock.

Anko fumed over his offish attitude. "You know, this is why you don't have many friends. That attitude of yours! If I didn't know better I'd swear you were an Uchiha. Oh, speaking of those uptight asses, one of them just got promoted to ANBU captain, and he's younger than you!"

This got his attention. "ANBU captain? Hmm, he must be very talented. Who is he?"

"You know this Uchiha quite well. He's the only one I see you talk to in HQ," purred Anko, finishing her dango.

Ifrit sat up a little straighter. "Itachi?"

"Yep! He got promoted yesterday," continued Anko, looking proud to have gotten that much of a reaction out of the stoic teenager. "He's broken Kakashi's record of being the youngest person to join ANBU and make captain."

"I'll have to give him my congratulations when I see him, then," said Ifrit, feeling glad for the Uchiha.

"Thank you, Ifrit," a calm, polite voice said just next to Anko.

The snake mistress nearly rammed a kunai into Itachi's sternum, but he caught her wrist before the blade touched him. "Nice to see you, too, Anko-sama."

"Itachi, glad to see you made it," replied Ifrit, nodding to the young ANBU Captain.

"Wait…you were waiting for him?" gawked Anko, staring at the two bewilderedly.

Itachi looked at her curiously. "Is there something wrong that?"

"Oh, no! I just thought Ifrit was meeting a...well, a girl," blushed Anko, looking flustered. "Never thought he'd meet a guy here…"

The Uchiha prodigy chuckled. "It's nothing like that, Anko-sama. Ifrit just called me to talk about some things."

"Oh!" sighed Anko in relief. "That's good! For a moment, I thought….well, umm. I'll shut up now and just go." She stood up and grabbed the rest of the dangos. "Bye, Ifrit! Thanks for the dango!"

She darted out of the dango shop, leaving the two to stare at each other in curiosity.

"Strange," murmured Ifrit, and then offered Itachi the sit Anko had previously occupied. "Have a sit, I'll order us some more dango and some tea."

"Thank you," said Itachi as he sat down. "What was so urgent you wanted to talk about?"

Ifrit scanned their surroundings briefly with just his eyes, then scratched his left cheek idly Itachi stiffen some and nodded when he saw the motion.

"How did your mission go?" asked Itachi, sounding plain, briefly looking around the dango show with just his eyes.

"It went well enough. Just some Rock-nin getting over their heads when they thought they could get away with some blueprints," replied Ifrit casually.

They waited quietly for their dango and tea to arrive, ate quietly together, and then left the shop. As soon as they got far enough, Ifrit grabbed Itachi's shoulder and the two disappeared in a swirl of flames. They appeared on top of the Hokage Monument; specifically, behind one of the stone craved spiky locks of the decreased Fourth Hokage.

"What happened to Naruto?" asked Itachi in worry. "I heard there was some trouble at the hospital with him."

"He was attacked by some Jonin, then he was nearly kidnapped by some ANBU when he was taken to the hospital," confirmed Ifrit, keeping his senses alert to any signs of eavesdroppers. "Someone really was trying hard to get Naruto this time."

Itachi rubbed his chin. "….I think my clan might have something to do with it."

Ifrit tensed. "What makes you think your own clan is behind this?"

"It was just after I picked up my little brother from pre-school. We walked right in on my parents as they were discussion something. I didn't hear it all, but I heard father mention Naruto and a deal," said Itachi, looking distraught.

"A deal?" repeated Ifrit. "What kind could they be making with Naruto?"

"I don't know. My parents stopped talking the moment they saw us, but father looked pretty happy…and that's something to be very worried about," replied Itachi, looking down at the village below as he leaned against the stone.

"Itachi, if your clan is up to something that could be harmful to Naruto…you know what the Third will do," warned Ifrit cautiously.

"I just worked all possible scenarios…" said Itachi sadly. "None of them end well for the Uchiha clan...I think they may be forming a Coup D'etat to conspire against Konoha, and plan to use Naruto somehow to achieve this. It's well known that our Sharigan can control the demon fox…it only makes sence they'd try to tap into its power. " He held up a hand to let him continue as Ifrit looked ready to shout. "I...know what you will say. I cannot stand what my clan has been trying to do. Their arrogance for power is corrupting them and this village…I won't let that happen."

"Itachi, that would mean you are going to betray your own family, your clan," sighed Ifrit, his blank expression showing a hint of sorrow around his eyes.

"I'm aware of what I'm doing, but in order to keep a civil war from breaking out in Konoha, I will do what I must. I ask that you do not interfere with my methods. I will do whatever it takes…even if it means putting myself through hell," stated the Uchiha prodigy.

Ifrit stared silently at his secret friend. The two had gone on missions together ever since Itachi entered the ANBU Black Ops. In that time, Ifrit learned that Itachi was in truth ordered to join them to keep taps on them for his clan when the Third ordered him to keep an eye on the prodigy. But their time together formed a close friendship and the two agreed to protect Konoha at all costs, even from itself. Since then, Itachi became a double agent for the Third and has been reporting any suspicious activities within the clan. Ifrit knew just how much this would pain Itachi to put the village before his own clan, and it was because of their friendship that he wasn't going to let his friend suffer alone.

"Itachi," murmured Ifrit, gaining his quiet friend's attention. "If a time comes that forces you or the both of us out of Konoha…I want you to know that there is a safe place you can go."

Itachi brought his heavy gaze on Ifrit. "What are you talking about?"

Ifrit looked away from him and glared down at the village. "I cannot tell you anything more than that right now, Itachi. With everything starting to happen, it's best to keep it a secret. But I want you to know that you won't be alone down the dark path you're committing yourself." He ran a hand through his messy hair and turned to his friend. "I'm already down the path you're walking and I will be there to help carry your burden, but I ask only that you trust me for now and believe that I can help you should things get complicated to remain in Konoha."

Itachi did not reply for a long time. Ifrit waited patiently as he knew he was contemplating the offer and stood silent until Itachi decided to talk. Soon enough, Itachi walked over to him and offered him his hand, which Ifrit took it into his own and the two held their grip firmly together.

"I will accept the help, Ifrit," agreed Itachi. "But, if I learn this is a trick…" His dark eyes switch to red as three tomoe appeared around his pupils. "I will kill you."

Ifrit met his eyes with his own bizarre shaded ones and they glowed with an intense red light. "I promise my aid is genuine, and I would willingly let you take the blade to me if I prove unfaithful."

Itachi and Ifrit continued two stare into the others eyes, a mutual agreement that neither would use their powers on the other, just expose their true inner intentions through them. Seeing no lie in the other's eyes, they deactivated their dojutsu and looked down at the village.

"I will inform you if I'm forced to leave the village," said Itachi before he shushined away.

Ifrit sighed to himself and ran his hand through his messy hair once more. "…Namikaze-sensei, you must be crying an ocean of sorrow within the Shinigami." He suddenly became alert when he sensed two presences approaching his location.

"What do you want?" growled Ifrit as he assumed an offensive pose.

Two ANBU appeared in front of Ifrit and bowed briefly to him. "Lord Hokage has ordered us to find you. He wants you to report to his office immediately."

"Hai! I'll report at once!" said Ifrit immediately and followed the two ANBU to the Hokage tower. Once they arrived, Ifrit entered the Hokage's office and bowed respectively to him and waited to be addressed.

"Ah, Ifrit. I'm glad you were found quickly. I have an urgent mission for you," said Sarutobi, standing up from his chair and walking over to him.

Ifrit kept his head bowed to him. "What is my mission, Lord Hokage?"

"I want you to go to Naruto's orphanage and see if you can…extract any information from the staff," replied Sarutobi sternly. "I heard a rumor that I want verified."

"What exactly kind of rumor is it?" asked Ifrit in wonder, looking up at the old Hokage.

"A Chunin that just reported he overheard one of the staff members at the orphanage had kicked out Naruto. I want you to see if it's true, when it occur, and why was their reason," stated Sarutobi, taking out his pipe and using a weak fire jutsu to light it. He took a few puffs from it before continuing. "Once you've ascertained the truth you will report back to me immediately!"

"At once!" said Ifrit, a slight growl in his voice that startled everyone. He shushined out of the office right after that.

"My lord? Why are you sending that boy on that errand?" asked one of the ANBU, trying to regain his composure.

"Hmm? Why not?" questioned the Sarutobi. "Ibiki is busy with his own task. Ifrit is just as good as him when it comes to extracting information…and if that rumor is true, then I want those bastards at the orphanage to squirm a little…No one, for any reason, should ever kick a small child out into the streets." He took a long puff from his pipe and exhaled the smoke through his nose, slightly giving him an intimating appearance along with the vicious scowl on his face.

The ANBU present shuddered inwardly at that look and pitied the people their Hokage just sent the strange apprentice after…they had no idea what kind of hell they would be facing.

(At the Orphanage.)

Right before he arrived at the orphanage, Ifrit henged himself once more into the disguise of a civilian with brown hair and plain brown eyes. As much as he wanted to charge into the place and cause bodily harm to the entire staff, he understood that not all of them may have been responsible, and he had no desire to accidentally scare any of the children. He entered the building quickly and went up to a man talking to his fellow worker in the hallway. The worker he was talking to was a petite woman who looked far too young to Ifrit, who blushed at whatever the man was saying to her and looked ready to reply. That is until she caught sight of the disguised apprentice and quickly schooled her face to a pleasant smile. The man that was talking to her moved his head in his direction when the girl no longer was paying attention to him and hastily smiled innocently.

"Ah, yes!" said the man quickly. "Can we help you with something, young sir?"

"Yes, I was curious about one of your children living here," replied Ifrit with a neutral tone.

"Oh? Are you looking to adopt one? You look too young to wanna adopt a kid," said the man before a hint of a smug smirk graced his lips. "…Unless you are interested in one of our older ones."

Ifrit fisted his hand and squeezed it until his knuckles turned white and counted from ten to one in his mind before he made any kind of a reply. "Nothing like that, _sir_."

The man instantly looked displeased and his smirk fell off his face. "Then what do you want with one of our kids?"

"Just something I overheard someone say about one certain kid," answered Ifrit, resuming his counting in his mind to keep his anger in check. "I just wanted to see if it was true. Did a boy by the name of Uzumaki Naruto get thrown out of here earlier today?"

"The demon!?" spat the man.

The girl next to him gasped and hid behind the man, looking afraid for her life. "…Y-Yeah, that demon is finally away from us! I could never sleep knowing that _thing_ was in this building. I was too afraid the demon would sneak into my room and kill me in my sleep!"

The man took her into his arms and patted her shoulders. "There, there, my dear. We no longer have to deal with that wretched thing anymore."

"So he was kicked out of this orphanage, eh?" repeated Ifrit with a growl of anger, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Yeah! I kicked that piece of filth out myself. It dared to try and lead one of the kids away from the group to who knows where! If I hadn't stepped in right away, that demon would have taken that poor child and eaten her soul or something!" shouted the man proudly.

"Did anyone come to you about wanting you to kick the Uzumaki boy out of the orphanage?" asked Ifrit.

"Er…well, there was this guy in a cloak who said he'd take the kid and deal with him once and for all…but…Hey! Wait a minute, why the hell are you so interested in that demon and why are you asking _me_ questions?" acquiesced the man, glaring at him with suspicion.

Ifrit dropped his henge and gave the man a moment to see who he really was talking to before he disappeared from the spot and slammed the man against a wall, a red kunai in his hand and resting against his throat, his eyes blazing red. "I can kill you right here for being involved with the attempted kidnapping of the Uzumaki boy…so you will tell me everything I want to know or else I might decide to take you in and prolong your…punishment."

The man let out a girlish shriek and clawed at Ifrit's arms in desperation. "Noooo, nonononononono!!!!!"

"Then tell me about the cloak man! Tell me or I'll gut you like a pig!" roared Ifrit, removing the red kunai from the man's throat and pointed the tip right at his gut. "Tell me now!"

"AH! I dunno! I seriously don't know! I never saw the man's face…j-just his chin, but I think he was wearing a mask, too, as it was white and it looked like it had a beaky point!" whimpered the sniffling man.

Ifrit deactivated his eyes and let the man fall on his rear on the floor. "…So I imagine the rest of the orphanage agreed with your actions?"

"D-Damn right they did!" stammered the man, visibly shaken all over in fear.

Ifrit took a moment to work out the connections to the kidnapping and he didn't like what he deduced. "Fine…you will be hearing from the Third Hokage very soon, but before I go…I want you to get me an adoption scroll for Uzumaki Naruto."

This caught the man and the girl completely off guard.

"…You want to adopt that demon!" gasped the girl.

Ifrit fixed his burning gaze at her. "What I do is none of your concern…"

The girl fell to the floor in fear and looked ready to faint; she hastily crawled away from the frightening apprentice and hurried to get what he wanted. In a moment, she came back with the scroll and a few staff members of the orphanage.

An elderly man stormed right up to Ifrit and poked at him with a cane. "What is the meaning of this!? It's bad enough we had that filthy demon here. Now you are causing trouble? You will be reported to the Council for this!"

Ifrit gazed at the cane poking into his chest and then back up at the elderly man. "You should be more careful with your cane, old man…" His eyes flickered red and the cane burst into flames, scaring the old man back and forcing him to let go of his cane. "…when you poke at a fire…you might catch on fire yourself."

"…Y-You will be punished for this!" cried the old man.

Ifrit twirled the scroll in his fingers before sliding it into a pocket in his trench coat. "Do what you want. I got what I came for."

"You!" one of the other staff members shrieked. "…The fire-starter! Leave this place now! We don't want your filth here, either!"

Ifrit glared at the staff member silently. He waited until the staff member finally broke and started to step back away from him, and then he turned away and left the orphanage silently.

"That was the fire-starter?" the cowardly man gawked.

"Y-Yes," replied the staff member. "He nearly set all of Konoha aflame at the age of seven…that boy isn't human. Everything he touched, was set on fire…many died trying to stop him…and many more were seriously burnt or wounded when he came to Konoha."

"W-Why wasn't he killed then? Why is he an ANBU?" whimpered the girl, clinging onto the cowardly man.

"Because of the Fourth," hissed the old man. "I was there when the Fourth walked right into the fire and walked right out without so much as a singe on his robes with that _boy_ in his arms. It was horrifying, the boy was like a living being of flame…and those eyes…those eyes were like those of a demon's!"

"Why…why did our beloved Fourth harbor such a thing?" wondered one of the staff.

"He had his reasons…but you!" the old man growled, pointing at the cowardly man. "Were lucky…Usually anyone who sees him is gone in a flash!"

(Back in the Hokage's Office.)

"So…the orphanage were played into kicking out Naruto, hmm?" sighed Sarutobi, rubbing his forehead tiredly.

"It would seem that this kidnapping was planned for some time," replied Ifrit, who stood in front of the Hokage's desk with his arms crossed over his chest.

The old Hokage sighed even more and took a few puffs from his pipe to calm his nerves before he continued. "I will have to set up some kind of squad to keep an eye on Naruto, but that will take time until we determine who is still loyal and who is a traitor…"

"If I may, Lord Hokage?" asked Ifrit as he unfolded his arms and took out the scroll he acquired from the orphanage, then placed it on the desk. "I may have an idea on how to keep Naruto safe now."

Sarutobi raised a wrinkled eyebrow in wonder and stared at Ifrit, then opened the scroll and sighed more. "…Ifrit, as much as you might think, this won't work."

"Why is that?" asked Ifrit patiently, already knowing what he would say.

"No one will adopt the boy. Half the Council is against the boy, and those that aren't will be too scared to take the boy in for political reasons. I can't because of political reasons, too…and no one in the civilian population will take him out of more fear of what they think he is."

"You've forgotten something," reprimanded Ifrit.

The old man leaned back in his sit and narrowed his eyes at the boy. "Oh, have I?"

"You said no one on the Council will adopt the boy, and then you said no one in the civilian population will, either. You forgot to mention that not all of Konoha's shinobi is a member of a Shinobi clan or a family member of the civilian population. If someone who has no ties to either were to adopt the boy, they could keep an eye on him until he is old enough to look out for himself," replied Ifrit in a respective manner.

"But that person would need to be strong enough to protect Naruto…and not many of our clan-less Shinobi can…" the old man's eyes widen as he finally realized what Ifrit truly intended. "You do realize you will have almost everyone in Konoha against you if you adopt Naruto."

Ifrit bowed his head briefly. "I'm well aware of the risks, my lord. But I feel I'm the only one capable of keeping an eye on the boy, and in turn, I will see that he is properly trained into defending himself from future attacks. Even if that means teaching the boy everything I know."

"So…an apprentice taking on an apprentice, eh?" mused Sarutobi, then smiled with joy for the first time in ages. "All right, I will validate this adoption right now." He took out a brush and wrote his Hokage approval signature on it and pushed the scroll back to Ifrit.

Ifrit took the brush the Hokage offered him and quickly wrote his name on the scroll, but before he could take the scroll, the old man placed his hand on it.

"There, you are now and henceforth the rightful guardian of Uzumaki Naruto," said Sarutobi happily. "But before I let you go, I need you to promise me a few things."

Wary, Ifrit addressed the old man cautiously. "Yes?"

"You will under no circumstances tell the boy of the demon he harbors until I deem him ready," warned the Third. "Also, he will attain the Academy next year so he may become a Genin of Konoha. As much as I entrust your skills and abilities, I want him to at least try and have a normal childhood and make some friends."

Ifrit frowned at the orders. "…And if the Council denies him into the Academy?"

"They won't. Everyone, even civilians, have the free right to join the Academy and become Shinobi. They cannot stop him unless he doesn't wish to be a Shinobi," replied Sarutobi.

Ifrit nodded. "I understand, my lord. I will do as you ordered and see that Naruto is ready for the Academy within a year…and see that he gets what this village deemed him unworthy of ever having." He yanked the scroll out of the Hokage's hand and rolled it up and tucked it back into his trench coat and dismissed himself from the office.

Sarutobi was slightly shocked at the odd behavior. He had never seen such hostility from the boy or any hint of emotion from him until this moment, but as he thought about it, a smile slowly graced his aged face. "…I believe you are the right person Naruto needs, Ifrit…and I think he is exactly who you need, too."

---

A/N: Well, now. Things sure are happening around Naruto, huh? Who could be after him and what is Ifrit and Raven's real purpose in Konoha and why are they so concerned about Naruto themselves? Wanna find out? Let me know and I'll have the next chapter out for you all as soon as possible. Till then…


	2. Flash Welcome

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Teen Titans; they are the rightful property of Masashi Kishimoto, Shonen Jump and DC, Cartoon Network. Any rights I may have to this story are the plot and my own character: Ifrit.

A/N: I'm glad everyone liked the first chapter so much! Since I've gotten some good replies to this fanfic, I've decided to put more time into it. Before I start, I want to clear up one thing that one review. Ifrit is NOT Robin. He's an original character that I created for another fanfiction for Teen Titans; you can check it out if you wish to familiarize yourselves more with him. Oh, and one more thing, I'm looking for a Beta, a good one. My time is sparse since I'm now attending two different colleges and that leaves little time to write and go over my mistakes. If anyone is up to it, contact me and we'll go from there. Thank you for your patience and now, off we go…

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**Flash Welcome**

Naruto opened his eyes to be greeted by a white tiled ceiling. Groaning, he started to sit up only to groan in pain and lay back down. He gazed down to see his chest wrapped in heavy bandages and medical plaster. He looked around at his surroundings and groaned at the all too familiar room.

"I hate this room…" moaned Naruto weakly, glaring at the tiled ceiling.

"I know what you mean, I hate being in hospitals," a rough, wizened old voice replied.

Naruto jerked his head up, immediately regretting it as the sudden motion caused a sharp pain in his chest. An old, tanned familiar hand gently pushed Naruto's head back down on his pillow.

"Don't move too much, Naruto," cautioned Sarutobi gently. "You've had quite an injury and you need to keep from moving too much to let it heal."

"I'll heal up…I always do," grumbled Naruto with a grim satisfaction.

The old Hokage frowned for the boy and patted his forehead tenderly. "I know, but I promise you won't have to go through that experience ever again."

Naruto just looked back up at the tiled ceiling with a blank look.

"Naruto?" murmured Sarutobi worriedly.

"They'll hurt me again," whispered the little blonde, a tear forming at the corner of his eye, sniffing sadly.

Sarutobi mourned silently for all the wrong that has happened to this poor little boy. He had hoped that given time the village would begin to see Naruto for what he was and not what he held. But no…Their grief and rage from that terrible night transformed them into blinded fools. They were so rout with pain that they did whatever they could to put the blame on the source of their anger; this poor, innocent little boy. If only they knew who he really was, why the Yondaime chose him to contained the strongest of the Tailed-Beasts…that it was the boy's pure will that held back the demonic being that would destroy them all if it could. Were it not for the promise he made to the Yondaime, or for the very fact of who he was, he would have told everyone that night after the fox was contained just who he really was. Instead, he had tried to make everyone see him as a hero as the Yondaime wanted him to be seen, but all his attempts were instantly crushed when they learned that he fox was inside Naruto. He still remembered that moment when he told the entire village of the sacrifice the Yondaime made, and his last wish was for everyone to see the boy as the real hero of the village.

To his everlasting shame, the village showed their true nature in that same moment. They tried to kill the boy and what was worse was that he was forced to order the ANBU to kill anyone who'd try and harm him. People he saw every day in the village, people he had sworn to his last dying breath to protect. Then these same people openly defied and betrayed the Yondaime's dying wish and tried to kill the very thing they believed was a threat to them. The guilt of failing Minato still tore at his heart…

But now, he had a chance at hope to correct that mistake. He now had a way he could help the poor boy for all he suffered at the hands of this ungrateful village, and he would do everything in his power to see that Naruto was given what everyone wished to deny him: a _home_.

The old man smiled softly down at the teary boy and patted his head affectionately. "This time will be different, Naruto. After everything I learned, you will never suffer through that again."

"How?" asked the little blonde sobbingly, now letting a flood of tears pour from his pain-filled eyes. "All but you hate me…they hurt me when you're not looking."

"I wish I could make them all pay for what they did to you, Naruto," said Sarutobi sadly, but with a hard look in his eyes as he stared up at the ceiling. "It's unjustifiable to intentionally cause harm to a child, any child. No matter the reason."

"Then why?" cried Naruto, grasping the Sandaime's robes desperately, longing so much for just a bit of affection that he's seen other kids get from their parents, or from people who looked out for them. Why was he not allowed to have that? What had he done that was so terrible that everyone but the Sandaime wanted to hurt him so much? His young mind just couldn't find any answers.

Sarutobi wanted to hug the boy he saw as his second grandson so much. Were it not for his serious injuries, he would have picked that boy up and held him in his arms and given him what he knew he longed so much for. He settled with the only thing he knew could do. He stood up and to Naruto's greatest shock, the Sandaime, the man known as 'The Professor' for his tactical genius and leadership, got down on his knees and bowed down to his hands and face before him.

"I can only express my own regrets to what has happened to you, Naruto," said Sarutobi. "My apology alone will not make up for all the pain and sorrow you had to endure, but if it means anything to you. Please, accept this old man's apology and forgive this village for its stupidity."

"Jiji-Chan?" murmured Naruto in awe. It took him a few moments for the true significance of the old man's actions to sink into his head. He started crying and tried to sit up and go to him and get him to stand up, but the pain in his chest once more kept him down on the bed. "Please, stand up, Jiji-Chan…I'm not worth you doing that for."

The Sandaime remained on the floor with his face staring hard at the floor. "You are wrong, my boy. You are indeed worth it all and more. I only wish I could do more, but sadly, my hands are tied and my actions are even more tied. I can only do so much for you when I can spare it, and it wouldn't be enough to make up for what you're forced to deal with."

Naruto could only silently cry more.

The Sandaime stayed on his hands and knees for a long time, even if his old body protested at being in that painful position, he endured it for the sake of Naruto. His discomfort paled in comparison to the pain that Naruto had to go through while living in this village. After some time, he slowly got back to his feet, groaning some at the pain in his back that comes with old age. He quickly went over to the bathroom to wash his hands since they were down on the hospital floor. No matter what they saw, the floors of a hospital are never clean…

He came back to Naruto's bed and sat on the edge of it. Naruto used that time to stop his crying and wipe away his tears with the sheet of his bed.

"Now Naruto, as I said, I'm unable to do much for you. Why? Well, I'm afraid you're too young to understand anything about politics, but just believe that I would have adopted you into my clan were it not for politics," said Sarutobi.

"Then I hate politics," grumbled Naruto childishly.

Sarutobi smiled and chuckled briefly. "As do I, and anyone who has a hand at them. You are bright to already know that." He laughed some more before taken on a serious expression once more. "But in all seriousness, Naruto. I will only have little time to see that you are taken care for and safe." He raised his hand to keep Naruto, who looked ready to start yelling, quiet. "I know what you're going to say, and yes, that won't be enough to make sure you're not harmed. That's why; I've arranged someone else to care for you while my attention is averted to village business."

"Who?" asked Naruto curiously. "Everyone wants to hurt me…who would want to take care of me?"

"You already meant him, actually," smiled Sarutobi. "He was the one who saved you from those Jonin that attacked you and brought you here. You may not believe it but he is very concerned about you and wishes the same thing as I do about keeping you out of harm's way." He took that moment to pause long enough to allow Naruto to understand him, then when he saw the boy wanted him to continue, he resumed. "He's much like you, Naruto. Someone who was also mistreated at a young age for reasons that was out of his control. Some even sought to hurt him like they tried to hurt you, but he endured as you had and become quite an asset to our village; just as I'm sure you will be once you've grown up."

"You mean that funny looking guy with grey skin and weird eyes?" inquired Naruto, as his memory began to recall his unexpected savior.

"Yes, him. His name is Ifrit, and he's a Tokubetsu Jonin in the ANBU Black Ops and the apprentice to the head of our Torture & Interrogation department. He is a very skilled shinobi…and like his sensei, highly feared," explained Sarutobi. "But don't let that frighten you, Naruto. He has the best at heart for you and I'm sure you'll see he isn't as scary as you might think."

"What's…totire and intoragition?" mumbled Naruto with a blank look on his face.

"_Tor-ture_ and _In-ter-ro-ga-tion_," corrected the old man, sounding out the words for him. "Torture means to inflict intentional harm or cause great pain to someone. Interrogation means to extract desired information from someone who doesn't wish to tell anyone the information."

Naruto just stared with wide eyes at the Sandaime. "You want someone who is good at hurting others to watch me?"

"Who better?" retorted Sarutobi. "Because he is skilled in those fields, hardly anyone will want to give him reason for fear he'll punish them." He smiled pleasantly the whole time he spoke. "If they try to hurt you while you're under his protection, he will have the right to do far worse to them than what they did to you."

"Wow, he must be good then, because I've had a lot done to me," replied Naruto offhandedly, not in the least bit showing any anger or resentment toward his past experiences.

"That is going to be the first thing that will change when you move in with him," said Sarutobi seriously. "You won't have to fear anyone harming you with Ifrit to look out for you."

"Wait…move in with him?" gawked Naruto. "Why would I move in with him?"

Sarutobi beamed happily at the boy, anxious to tell him the good news he'd been wanting to tell him. "Because of some ill-begotten reasons at the orphanage, you were kicked out, right?"

Naruto nodded, frowning as he remembered all too well of being literally thrown out of the place.

"Since they refuse to take you back in, and as I'm unable to adopt you…Ifrit took it upon himself to adopt you and become your legal guardian," revealed Sarutobi, smiling all the more.

Naruto went into shock by the news. His young mind was for once at a halt as it worked out what the old man had just explained to him. His education wasn't very good, and so still being young, there was much he couldn't understand, but he did understand what adopt meant. Every child in the orphanage understood that to be adopted meant that they were going to have a home…a family.

"He…adopted me?" repeated Naruto in astonishment, as tears started to form once more in his striking blue orbs, but this time those tears were for joy.

Someone actually wanted to take care of him. Even if he looked like a weirdo, Naruto was only too happy to know that someone actually cared for him and wanted him.

Sarutobi felt really good in that moment when he saw the bright look of hope in Naruto's eyes. Something inside him let him know that Minato, too, was pleased. He said a silent prayer to Kami for the man who chose to dwell inside the Death God for the sake of protecting everyone, then he patted Naruto's head once more.

"Yes, he will be here soon to introduce himself properly to you, then you two can get to know each other better," said Sarutobi.

"When? I wanna meet now!" exclaimed Naruto happily.

"As I said, he'll be here…"

"Now…" a rough, calm voice interrupted.

Both Naruto and Sarutobi turned their heads toward the door to see Ifrit leaning against the doorframe, stoic-looking as ever.

"Er...hi?" murmured Naruto, starting to have second thoughts about living with the emotion-less looking teenager.

"Hello there, Naruto," greeted Ifrit as he walked into the room, then bowed his head to the Sandaime. "I hope I'm not too early."

"Not at all, Ifrit!" said Sarutobi excitedly. "You're right on time. Our impatient lad here was just wishing to see you."

Ifrit turned his expression face to regard Naruto and the boy gulped.

The Sandaime barked out a laugh and folded his arms into his robes. "I think I'll depart now. I have much paperwork to do…too much to be right…to get done. I'll check up on you later this evening, Naruto!" He nodded briefly to Ifrit and exited the room with a pleased smile on his wrinkled face.

Naruto wished the old man would have stayed with him. He still wasn't sure about this Ifrit guy and he was very cautious around new people he met.

Ifrit, as if sensing the boy's nervousness, reached into his trench coat and pulled out a familiar pack. He tapped the bottom to cause one peppermint stick to fly out of the pack, then caught it easily with two fingers and handed the candy to Naruto.

"Here, I remembered you didn't get the chance to enjoy the first one I tried to give you," said Ifrit passively.

Cautiously, Naruto slowly reached out and took the offered treat from Ifrit and stared at it intensely, as if looking for any signs of danger from it.

Ifrit took out another peppermint stick for himself and put the end of it in his mouth and started licking it. "It's not poisonous, if you're wondering. Nor is it big enough to hold a hidden blade, the only thing that might fit in it is a senbon, but those are too long to stick inside that peppermint stick, also a senbon only has two piercing ends, so it couldn't hurt you if you sucked on it, unless you jab your tongue on the pointy end."

Naruto still regarded the candy cautiously, sniffing at it and turning it around in his small fingers for any signs that could alert him to harm. He didn't wish to insult Ifrit, but he had too many incidents in the Orphanage where they tried to tamper with what little food they did give him. After he was satisfied that it wasn't going to hurt him, he licked the peppermint stick and his eyes lightened up with excitement when his taste buds exploded with delight. He rammed the candy into his mouth and munched happily on it.

Had he bothered to look at Ifrit as he did, he would have seen the fraction of a smile on Ifrit's face. "Glad to see you decided to try it. I took a liken to them when I went to Suna."

"Sonu?" mumbled Naruto with his mouth still full of the crunched peppermint.

"It's rude to talk with your mouth full, Naruto. Finish the candy, then talk," reprimanded Ifrit kindly.

Naruto quickly swallowed the candy, licking at his lips happily. "That was good!"

"I know," replied Ifrit, taking a seat in the chair next to Naruto's bed. "Assuming I heard you correctly, did you mean to say Suna?"

"Uh-huh, what's that?" asked Naruto innocently.

Ifrit sweatdropped and frowned inwardly. "It's a place, Naruto. It's a hidden village like Konoha is; only this one is out in Wind Country."

"It's outside the village?" gawked Naruto. "Wow! I want to see Suna! I haven't seen been outside the village yet! I wanna see Suna, is it right outside the walls?"

Ifrit would have smirked if he actually would allow himself to express any emotion. "No, Naruto. Suna is far away from here. There's much land and forest and desert between us and Suna, but one day, I think we can take a trip out there. After all, Suna is one of our allies."

"Woohoo! Owowowowowowo!" cried Naruto as he cheered then winced in pain.

"Don't get too excited, Naruto. You're still healing and need to take it easy," cautioned Ifrit.

"It's okay! It's not as bad as it was a while ago!" replied Naruto.

"Oh?" murmured Ifrit. "Hmm, let's be sure."

He left to get one of the nurses and asked her to get any available doctor on duty. After a few moments, the doctor came in and checked Naruto's condition, and then re-checked him again with a look of amazement on his face.

"Fantastic…" murmured the doctor with a tone of disbelief.

"What is?" asked Ifrit.

"It seems that Naruto's bones have nearly healed themselves," revealed the doctor. "…This shouldn't have happened this fast. Even with our medical-jutsus and top doctors working on him, they should have taken at least four days to heal as much as they have now."

Ifrit understood why. The damned fox was making sure its vessel wouldn't die so it in turn wouldn't die along with him. It was speeding up Naruto's healing with its tainted chakra. "So does that mean that Naruto can leave soon?"

"Er…yes, if he continues to heal at this rate, he can leave today," replied the shocked doctor. "Does the boy have a bloodline?"

"Not that we're aware of," replied Ifrit. "Nor is that information allowed to be known…or rumors to be spread."

The doctor caught the faint glow in Ifrit's eyes and shivered. "Right, I'll see to that. I'll have one of the nurses fill out his release papers, but we'll do one more full examination before we release him from the hospital."

"Excellent," said Ifrit dryly. "I'd like to get him out of here as soon as possible, and I'm sure the Sandaime would like that, too."

"I'll see that it's quick," said the doctor and quickly left.

It took an hour and a half for the full examination, then another half hour for the release papers to be finalized. Once they were, Ifrit carted Naruto out off the hospital in an issued wheelchair for him. As they traveled down the street, Naruto caught sight of the villagers glaring hatefully, but was surprised to see that most of the glares weren't directed at him.

"What did you do?" asked Naruto bluntly, his young curiosity getting the better of him.

"Hmm?" replied Ifrit, kept unaware by the question. "What do you mean?"

"What did you do to make everyone look at you like they do me?" asked Naruto.

Ifrit stared ahead of them, ignoring the bigoted villagers. "…I didn't die."

"Why would that make them mad?" wondered Naruto.

"I'll tell you when you're older," replied Ifrit in a tone that indicated he was done discussing it.

Naruto grumbled and swung his short legs idly in the wheelchair.

Seeing his sour expression, Ifrit spoke up again. "You hungry?"

Naruto perked up. "Yeah!"

"Hmm, okay. I guess we can get something to eat before we get to my place…I know a nice dango shop that you might like," said Ifrit, starting to head toward it.

"No! I don't like dango!" stated Naruto childishly and giving him a pouting look.

"Umm…okay," said Ifrit, not sure what to do as he never had any experience with handling kids before. "What do you want to eat then?"

"I want ramen!" exclaimed Naruto, looking up at him hopefully.

"Ramen?" uttered Ifrit. "That's not healthy for you, Naruto."

"But I want ramen!" pouted Naruto loudly.

Ifrit sighed. "Okay, fine…just this once." He looked about around him and as luck would have it, he spotted a ramen stand just down the road, with a huge sign one it that said: _**Ichiraku Ramen Bar**_.

"I guess that's as good as any," muttered Ifrit dryly and wheeled Naruto to the stand.

When he entered the place, he helped Naruto onto one of the tall stools at the bar, and then sat down in the stool next to his. He hadn't even gotten the chance to look around before he was greeted by a middle-aged man with tanned skin and slightly graying brunette hair, wearing a ramen chef's outfit.

"Welcome to Ichiraku!" greeted the ramen chef. "What would you like?"

"Er," uttered Ifrit blankly, a little startled by the pleasantness of the man. Normally, a villager would scorn at him upon sight, and then do whatever they could to get him to leave. He wasn't used to this kind of reaction, but he was brought out of his startled state by Naruto.

"Hey, Teuchi-san!" greeted Naruto.

The chef gazed at Naruto and smiled even brighter. "Naruto! It's good to see you again…huh? What?!?! Naruto, what happened to you again?" exclaimed the chef in worry when he saw Naruto's bandaged chest.

"Oh, just another incident, that's all," waved off Naruto with a calm smile.

"That's no way to act! That looks serious!" cried the chef.

"Chichi, you're gonna scare our customers away if you keep shouting like that!" a delicate, petite voice said from the back of the stand.

A ten-year-old brown-haired girl in a ramen chef's outfit came walking out of the kitchen and smack her father over the head with a towel. "We're not getting hardly any business as it is! We don't need to scare what little we do get!"

"I'm sorry, Ayame," her father apologized while bowing his head. "But I was worried when I saw little Naruto was injured."

"Naruto's injured?!" shrieked the girl known as Ayame. "Why didn't you say so?"

She came right up to counter and peaked up over it on her tip-toes. "Are you okay, Naruto?"

"I'm fine, Ayame-san!" assured Naruto. "It's not as bad as it looks."

Ifrit just stared at the scene. "You know these people, Naruto?"

"Yeah! They're the greatest! They make the best ramen in the whole world!" proclaimed Naruto.

The two chefs blushed with pride at the boy's statement.

"I gotta give the boy credit there. He sure knows good ramen when he tastes it!" said the chef. "Umm, by the way, who are you, mister? You're not trying to trick and hurt our top customer, are you!?" by that point he had pulled out a very large knife.

It took a lot to scare Ifrit, but the look in the chef's eyes with that knife in his hand, and the look of the little girl, who had taken up a frying-pan, made him go pale. "N-No! I'm not planning on harming, Naruto! I'm now his legal guardian."

"What? You mean, you adopted Naruto?" uttered the chef in amazement.

"Yes, I couldn't stand to see him alone and mistreated by the villagers anymore, so I decided to adopt him," informed Ifrit.

"Well, that's great news! This calls for a celebration, lunch is on the house for you two!" exclaimed the chef.

"Oh, no, please. I'll pay for the food," said Ifrit politely. "I don't mind."

"Nonsense! And don't try weaseling us to pay!" warned the chef by pointing the knife at Ifrit. "You are the first good soul to come along in a long time that treats our best customer nice, so you're getting a free meal!" He slammed the sharp end of the end in the counter. "And that's that!"

Ifrit gulped. "…Yes, sir."

"Okay, then! Ayame!" shouted the chef, rolling up his sleeves. "Let's make the best meals these two will ever have."

"Right, dad!" replied Ayame and hurried back into the kitchen to start preparing the ramen.

"It'll be out in a giffy!" promised the chef. "Oh, by the way, the name's Ichiraku Teuchi, you can call me Teuchi!" He then darted into the back to help his daughter.

Ifrit slowly blinked at the knife that the chef had impaled on the counter, and watched as it wobbled to a stop. He turned to Naruto and saw the boy was staring hungrily at the back, looking extremely excited.

"So, Naruto? How do you know these people?" asked Ifrit.

"Hmm? Oh! I got a free coupon at the Orphanage for here. I was lucky, too. I hadn't gotten any food for three days that week for looking at the other kids…" said Naruto, still looking excited at getting his favorite food.

"Three days!" growled Ifrit. "You mean, they weren't feeding you?"

"Barely, they kept saying I wasn't worth the good food they made to waste on a worthless nothing like me," replied Naruto in an uncaring, plain tone.

"If I had known that, I would have done worse to those people there…" murmured Ifrit.

At that moment, Teuchi came back out with two bowls of ramen and placed them before the two. "Eat and enjoy!"

Ifrit handed Naruto his chopsticks, almost losing his fingers when the boy snatched them out of his hand, and then turn to the chef and nodded his head. "Thank you for the meal…and for looking out for Naruto."

"My pleasure! When I heard how he was being treated by those nits at the Orphanage, I saw fit that the boy should at least get some nourishment!" said Teuchi. Then he leaned forward so only Ifrit could hear. "I've been making all his meals free when I heard he wasn't getting any food, plus when one of the villagers dared to tell me who I should or shouldn't serve, I decided to help the poor lad. He's had a rough time. It wasn't right to see how everyone treats him, he's just a small boy after all."

Ifrit regarded the chef curiously. Awed by the good nature he sensed in him and his daughter. He felt there was some hope for this village if there were people like these two living in it. He made a silent vow to repay the family when he could for taking care of Naruto as best they could…he knew that Minato would have done the same.

"Again, thank you," expressed Ifrit, bowing his head slightly to the chef, then took his own chopsticks and began eating the ramen. Upon tasting the food, Ifrit's eyes widened as far as they would go. He chewed for a bit, then swallowed in silent awe. "…This…This is fantastic!"

The two Ichiraku's were then witness to both of their customers bolting down their ramen. Teuchi puffed out his chest in pride and went into the back to whip up some more ramen for the two. They again saw the two chow down the second bowl in record-breaking speed. They'd gone through ten bowls each before they looked satisfied and leaned away from the counter, patting their full stomachs, both letting out a happy sigh.

Ayame giggled at their simultaneous actions. "Heh, they're acting like family already."

The comment alerted Ifrit and the little girl was witnessed to a very rare sight…he blushed.

He cleared his throat and tried to hide his faint redness with his hand. "Erhmm, thank you for the food…and the compliment, but I think it's time Naruto and I head home. He still needs to recover from his injuries."

Teuchi nodded while folding his arms over his broad chest. "Take care of Naruto for us! And feel free to come by here any time, you'll always be welcomed!"

Ifrit nodded briefly and then helped Naruto back into his wheelchair, he pulled the curtain to the side, but before he and Naruto left, he gazed at the chef and his daughter. "You are an honorable family, thank you for helping Naruto when others were too blind to see…" He pushed Naruto out of the stand and headed toward his apartment.

Teuchi smiled and started to pick up the empty ramen bowls. "I'm glad to see that boy finally have a precious someone."

"Yes! I knew Naruto was gonna get adopted some day!" smiled Ayame, only to stop when she saw her father shake his head.

"It was the Jonin I was talking about," said Teuchi as he carried the bowls to the sink.

"You know him, chichi?" asked Ayame in wonder.

"…A long time ago when I first opened up this stand. He was too young to remember, but I still remember that boy," revealed Teuchi. "That was the only time I really saw him, but I still remember those eyes…they were the hollowest set of eyes I've ever seen." The old chef shuddered. "But now when I saw them now, that hollowness was gone." He smiled as he began cleaning the bowls. "Yep, that boy is just perfect for Naruto-san…"

Ayame blinked at her father in wonder, perplexed by his observation of the slightly freaky looking Jonin. "Well, he was nice…so yeah, I think he's just the person Naruto-san needs!" she then started to clean the counter, smiling at the good feeling swelling up inside her for Naruto. "He's gonna be just fine!" She went over to the knife that was still lodged in the counter, grumbling at the mark it left in the wooden top, but stopped when her eyes caught something in the tip jar. The jar that has hardly ever been halfway filled since they first put it there, but now…

"CHICHI!!!!" shouted the small girl.

Her father came running back up to her with knives in both hands. "What is it, Ayame!? Some hentai touch you?"

Ayame groaned in embarrassment but shook it off and pointed at the tip jar. "L-Look!"

Teuchi followed his daughters hand and now it was his turn to shout. "WHOA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

They both ran to the jar and picked it up. Inside was a huge wad of bills, with a small note on it. Teuchi took the note out and read it aloud for his daughter to hear. "This is for your kindness and troubles…deepest respects, Ifrit."

"When did he put that much in the jar?" awed Ayame.

"He's a shinobi, Ayame. They can do all kind of things, but I don't care! He's now getting the best service from this point on!" cheered Teuchi as he took out the wad of money and started counting with glee along with his daughter, who was drooling at the amount she saw.

---

Naruto was never comfortable in large crowds, especially in board daylight and out in the open where everyone could see him. It only meant that he could be spotted easier by the villagers and receive either their cold glares or worse. He would have darted into the closest shadow to hide from their sight, but the fact that Ifrit was with him, pushing him down the street kept quietly, kept him from reacting to that impulse. That was another strange thing for Naruto, to trust someone he just met to keep him safe. In his short memory, the only people he could remember ever keeping him safe was the Sandaime and those funny guys with animal masks, but here now was this total stranger, and he was perfectly fine around him. If he might had any doubts about this Jonin were instantly gone when his hand suddenly shot in front of his face and halted the progress of a rather large rock.

He watched as Ifrit moved his hand away from his face with the rock and glare at the villager who had thrown it. To his amazement, he saw his eyes blaze a crimson red before he crushed the rock into dust in his bare hand. Naruto glanced over at the villager who had thrown the rock and saw him quivering and beginning to make a hasty retreat. He looked up at Ifrit once more and found him bringing his deadly gaze at anyone who was glaring at them. Each person he gazed out instantly started walking away, or running for some, or look busy with something else. Ifrit grunted in contempt and started pushing Naruto's wheelchair once more.

"How'd you do that?" asked the small blonde.

"Do what?" replied Ifrit, looking down at him with normal eyes.

"That glowy-thingy you did! And breaking that rock!" wondered Naruto with burning curiosity in his eyes.

"Oh, that…" murmured Ifrit, looking back up at their path. "I just channeled chakra into my eyes to make them glow, as for crushing the rock…well, I'm just strong, but chakra makes it easier to increase my attributes."

Naruto just stared with a glossy look in his eyes. "Wha…?"

Ifrit nearly smirked. "Chakra, the life-force a shinobi uses to use techniques and enhance their strength and speed and even their senses. In a simpler term, it let's shinobi pull off cool stuff."

"Can I learn to use chakra?" exclaimed Naruto excitedly.

Ifrit nodded, almost wanting to smirk again. It must be the energetic blonde that was affecting him. "Yes, but only after your injuries healed and we get you physically fit. You still a bit too young to be using chakra, anyway."

"Awww! I wanna learn now!" complained Naruto.

"All in due time," assured Ifrit. "But you need time to rest first, Naruto."

Naruto pouted childishly in his wheelchair the rest of the way to Ifrit's apartment. It wasn't a very big apartment complex, only two stories tall, and only held a few rooms, but it was in a decent part of town and it seemed like a nice building for the most part from the looks of it. Ifrit wheeled Naruto to the stairs and gently picked him up and parked the wheelchair at the base of the stairs, planning on returning it as soon as he got Naruto settled in his place. He carried Naruto up the flight of stairs up to the second floor and fumbled with his key before getting it out and unlocking the door. They entered his apartment and he set Naruto down on a huge leather couch placed in the middle of the room.

Naruto took that moment to take in his surrounding for any possible exits or hiding places. It was an unfortunate habit he picked up while living in the Orphanage to survive. Berating himself for not trusting his new guardian, he focused on just surveying the decorator. To his amazement, the couch was the 'only' thing in the living room. The rest of the room was bare, save for the black rug that rested underneath the leather couch.

"…Even the boiler room back at the Orphanage had more stuff," murmured Naruto absently, blinking at the nearly bare living room.

"We don't spend too much time here, so we figured it was a waste of money to spend on furniture," replied Ifrit, unfazed by the blonde's rude statement.

"Umm, okay…wait…we?" uttered Naruto, looking at Ifrit.

"Hmm? Oh, right, I forgot to mention that I have a roommate," replied Ifrit. "I'm sure you two will get along when you meet her."

Anxious to make a new acquaintance, hopefully, a friend, Naruto smiled brightly. "Can I meet her!?"

Ifrit was about to answer when his roommate can out into the living room, wearing only a navy blue bathrobe. She scratched her un-brushed purple hair and rubbed the sleep out of her eyes. "Hey, Ifrit…" she mumbled as she stumbled to the small kitchenette in the apartment.

The blonde and the Apprentice just watched her as she worked lazily to get a kettle out and fill it with water. The two silently waited as the sleepy woman noticed that Ifrit hadn't replied to her. She blinked lazily and turned to him to ask what was the matter, when she saw the blonde looking at her in wonder. The first thing to happen was her kettle to suddenly glow black and went flying into the ceiling, then her eyes widened to the size of saucers and her adrenaline kicked in that brought her completely awake.

"Is that…?" whispered Raven, raising a hand to point at Naruto.

Ifrit just nodded.

Then the two were given a rare sight, or to Ifrit, at least…she fainted.

Ifrit was immediately running to her side and trying to wake her up. Naruto remained on the couch, looking sorry and worried. "Did…Did I do something bad?"

"No!" replied Ifrit quickly, looking back over to the blonde. "She just overwhelmed with…umm, surprise."

"Why would she be surprised? Is it because of me?" wondered Naruto worriedly. "…Does she not like me?"

"It's not that, Naruto," reassured Ifrit. "Trust me, it's the opposite…she just wasn't made aware that I adopted you."

It was at that moment that a pale hand grabbed Ifrit's collar. He turned to look at a fully awaken Raven with disbelief on her usual monotone face. "You adopted the Fou---!?" Ifrit's hand was instantly over her mouth.

"Remember, the orders," said Ifrit sternly.

Raven reprimanded herself and calmed herself. "Sorry…But, why did you do it?" She glanced at the confused blonde one more time, before leaning in to whisper to Ifrit. "Our orders are to keep low and watch him. Not adopt him and put us in the village's eyes!"

"I know what I'm doing, Raven," replied Ifrit, patted her hand. He then took that moment to inform her of everything that happened up to after she went back to her shift. "...This is the only way to keep him safe now. If I hadn't adopted him, he'd be all by himself, probably put in some crummy apartment and left all alone, leaving him vulnerable to everyone who is against him."

Raven sighed and got back to her feet, fixing her bathrobe and walking over to the worried blonde on their couch. "I'm sorry, Naruto. I didn't mean to startle you. It wasn't because of you…It was because of something you're too young to understand."

"…So you don't hate me?" asked Naruto nervously.

"Hate you?" repeated Raven, before she took the blonde into her arms and hugged him warmly. "Never…"

He was completely taken back by the warm hug. No one had ever embraced him with so much tenderness; he wasn't sure what to do. After a few awkward seconds, something inside him, an instinct, told him to return the affection, which he eagerly did and wrapped his small arms around her neck as tears began pouring down his happy face. In turn, Raven hugged him more, resting her cheek on top of his golden, spiky locks.

Ifrit leaned his hip against the side of the couch and watched the heartwarming spectacle before him. It was so touching that his usual stoic face cracked as he smiled down at the two. His smile was instantly gone when he sensed two presences outside the door.

"Raven, stay here with Naruto," said Ifrit.

As soon as she herself sensed the two chakra presences, she brought her henge over herself to hide her unique features, one more over Naruto to hide him from sight. "Naruto, stay close to me."

Naruto, not sure what was happening obeyed and clung to her tightly. "What's wrong?"

Ifrit shushed him. "Quiet, I think they're not a threat…but I'm not feeling any emotion from them…nearly at all."

"Ne," whispered Raven, hugging Naruto tighter to her. She came to that as the only conclusion as it was known to them that Danzo trained his special ANBU Ne Ops to have little to no emotions. It was unnatural for any living thing to be void of emotions, and one of the reasons why the Sandaime had disbanded them, but no one really expected the old cripple to obey Sarutobi's orders. Raven herself had been tracking every possible Ne Operative and making a profile of each one. And always, it disturbed her sensitive psyche whenever she sensed their lack of emotions. To her, they were nothing more than killing dolls…pawns for a heartless tyrant.

Ifrit carefully walked up to the door, pulling out a red kunai from his sleeve and hid it behind his side as he opened the door. Greeting him were two 'normal' looking ANBU, one with a boar mask and the other a crane.

"Yes?" asked Ifrit politely.

"You are summoned by the Council. You are to report to them immediately," said the boar ANBU.

"We are also assigned by the Sandaime to look after the Uzumaki boy for you while you are away," added the crane ANBU.

"That won't be necessary," replied Ifrit. "I have a friend who can look after him."

"We were ordered to watch the boy," repeated the hawk ANBU.

Ifrit nodded as if to concede. "That's a shame…"

"Huh?" wondered the boar ANBU right before Ifrit thrust a palm into his gut, forcing him unconscious.

Ifrit used his red kunai to block the sword the crane ANBU had tried to slice him with, then countered with an elbow into the fake ANBU's masked chin and followed up with a chop to his bare throat. He finished it with a punch to his sternum, knocking him, too, unconscious. He quickly dragged the two fake ANBU into the apartment and tied them up with wire, tightening it enough to cut the circulation from their hands to prevent them from performing any escape jutsu.

"Danzo just isn't giving up, is he?" grumbled Ifrit once he finished tying them up.

"Who's Danzo?" asked Naruto.

"A bad man, Naruto," answered Raven, petting his golden locks. "Just know you need to stay away from him."

"Okay…" murmured Naruto, clinging his small hands on her bathrobe.

Ifrit nearly smiled again at the tender scene, but he quickly remembered their situation. "I'll call Ibiki-sensei and let him know of these guys. Afterwards, I'll inform the Sandaime of the Council's summoning, see if it's real or not."

"I'll keep Naruto safe," assured Raven with a determined tone.

Ifrit glanced at her serious eyes once then departed the apartment to look for his sensei.

"I don't mean to cause all this trouble for you," whimpered Naruto.

Raven abolished him with a soft pat on his head. "This was never your fault, Naruto. You cannot control what's going on around you, but Ifrit and I will fix it, we promise."

"…Okay…but why did you change your looks?" asked Naruto in full curiosity.

Raven sat him down on the couch and walked over to make sure the fake ANBU were still knocked out. Seeing they were, she answered Naruto's question. "Because no one other than Ifrit knows what I really look like. It's a special genjutsu that lets me hide my appearance without others detecting I have one on."

"Huh?" mumbled Naruto with a blank look.

"I'll explain it better later…but first, I need to change. I can't keep walking around in this bathrobe for these possible perverts," said Raven, glaring at the fake ANBU and tightening her robes around her body.

---

Ifrit quickly found Ibiki, who was in his office, informing him of another attempt of kidnapping of Naruto, then went straight to the Hokage's office, where he just saw the old man quickly hiding an orange-covered book.

Ifrit sighed and walked up to his desk. "Pardon for the intrusion, Lord Hokage."

"Ifrit? Is something the matter" asked Sarutobi.

"Yes, another attempt was made to kidnap Naruto," answered Ifrit heatedly.

Sarutobi sat up from his desk, with his palms slammed on top of the desk. "Is Naruto okay?!"

Ifrit nodded. "He's perfectly safe. I was able to handle the situation quickly and silently. Ibiki is handling the kidnappers as we speak."

"How did they try to abduct Naruto this time?" wondered Sarutobi.

"They posed as ANBU…again," replied Ifrit. "They came to inform that I was summoned by the Council and take you left further orders for them to look after Naruto in my absence."

"…And how did you know they were imposters?" asked Sarutobi seriously, regarding the young man critically.

Ifrit tapped his temple. "You're aware of my doujutsu, correct?"

"Ah, yes…The Reikongan" nodded the Sandaime, fully understanding know. "So you sensed distrust in them."

"Negative," replied Ifrit bluntly. "I sensed nothing from them."

Sarutobi blinked at him. "Nothing? Then how did you…?"

Ifrit continued quickly for him. "Absolutely nothing from them..."

Sarutobi snarled in anger and sat back down in his chair and folded his hands together as he began thinking. _'Danzo must really want to get his hands on Naruto if he's willing to try this many kidnappings so close…but using the same trick? That's not like him…unless he wasn't aware his trick was discovered.'_ He glanced up at the waiting Jonin and began to question the young man before him. _'…I wonder.'_ He sat up straight in his chair. "Ifrit, report to the Council chamber and wait for my arrival. Knowing Danzo, he'll have set up the Council meeting to detour any suspensions."

With a blank look, Ifrit pretended to act ignorant. "Danzo? What would he have to do with Naruto's kidnapping?"

Sarutobi regarded him once more. _'Oh, you're a good actor, Ifrit…'_ Loudly, he replied, "I'm sure you've heard of the ROOT program that once was running in the ANBU Black Ops, correct?"

Ifrit nodded, keeping up his look of ignorance.

"Danzo was the head of that specific department, but I disbanded it after learning what he was doing to the poor souls that were drafted into the program," answered Sarutobi, pulling out his pipe and lighting it with a weak fire jutsu. "The program focused on devoiding shinobi of their emotions and by Danzo's opinion, forging them into perfect tools for the use of the village. The cost was their mental stability and their humanity, which was why I had ROOT disbanded…"

"That would explain why I sensed absolutely nothing from those two fake ANBU," reasoned Ifrit.

"Indeed…now hurry. I know for a fact that Danzo hates to wait for people to arrive when called," replied Sarutobi sternly.

Ifrit saluted him and left the office and headed for the Council room. Sarutobi reclined in his chair and stared at the door before waving his hand. An ANBU with a dog mask and gravity-defying silver hair suddenly appeared next to him.

"Inu," said Sarutobi, addressing the ANBU by his codename. "I want you to go to Ifrit's apartment and make sure Naruto is okay and see who is watching him."

"If you don't mind my asking, Lord Hokage…but I'm getting the feeling you don't trust Ifrit," replied Inu.

"…At the moment, I admit, I'm not sure," replied Sarutobi honestly. "But I do believe that Ifrit does want to keep Naruto safe…but I'm worried for what reasons."

"So, you want me to keep taps on him as well?" inquired Inu.

"You 're starting to know me too well," chuckled Sarutobi. "Just until I'm sure that Ifrit can be truly trusted. Also, I want you to get a background check on the person who's watching Naruto know. I don't' like not knowing unknown factors."

"It will be done, my Hokage!" saluted Inu and disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"Please…please let my suspicions just be an old man's paranoia..." whispered the old Hokage to himself before sitting up and leaving his room, glancing once at the hanging portrait of the Fourth Hokage.

----

A/N: Sorry for the delay with this update. Sadly, I injured my right hand, resulting in a painful removal of a layer of skin on most of my thumb. I won't do into further details. But I will try and continue working on my next update.

For some of you wondering about some of the terms I used, here is a short list:

_**Chichi**_: Father

_**Reikongan**_: Spirit Eye (Totally made up Doujutsu I made up derived from the Japanese word: reikon, meaning 'soul, spirit'.)

_**Jiji**_: Old man

**Inu**_: _Dog

Please, tell me if you liked this chapter and please review! I'll hurry my lazy butt depending on how many reviews I get!


	3. Flash Start

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Naruto or Teen Titans; they are the rightful property of Masashi Kishimoto, Shonen Jump and DC, Cartoon Network. Any rights I may have to this story are the plot and my own character: Ifrit.

A/N: Greetings all. I'd like to state that I've made a new close friend the last few weeks, her name is **Kri-Ifrit**, who is now official beta-reader along with **Evilsangel**. And personal greetings go out to _**"Mika"**_ who also knows Kri-Ifrit and has read my work and has enjoyed it so much, thank you for reading my work, Mika. _***bows head respectively.***_

Now then, let's get back to the story, shall we?

* * *

**Flash Start**

As the Sandaime had predicted of his old rival, Danzo, had called for an emergency meeting of the Council. Ifrit was forced to wait outside the Council Chamber until he was summoned. He could already guess the political garbage the cripple was throwing around to sway the members to his side. After some time, a Jonin called him in and he walked right into the middle of the Council Chamber. Around him sat the respected heads of each clan of Konoha, along with some of the important civilians in charge of the non-Shinobi portion of Konoha. Danzo himself was sitting right by Homura's seat who sat on the right side of the Hokage's seat, and sitting on the left side was Koharu; Sarutobi's old teammates…and now political powers and constant ire.

The old cripple set his remaining eye on Ifrit with stoic indifference. "Ifrit you are brought before this council for a crime you have committed."

Ifrit met his stoic eye with a perfect monotone expression. He would play this game with the old warhawk until the Sandaime arrived, but he would put the old cripple where he belonged. "I wasn't aware the council saw fit to confront a single shinobi over a single crime. I must have done something remarkable to have this honor."

"You will refrain from addressing us in such a demeaning manner!" snapped Koharu.

Ifrit locked his eyes on the old woman, smirking inwardly when she averted her eyes from his instantly. "I was merely stating the importance of this meeting."

"Indeed, this is an important meeting, or we would not waste our valuable time on just a shinobi like you," interjected Danzo.

Ifrit refrained from turning his gazes on the old cripple. He wanted him to believe his insulting remark struck him, so he remained silent.

Believing his façade, Danzo continued, "Thereby, we will deal with this matter quickly. You are charged for assaulting the staff of the orphanage and stealing adopting documents for…Uzumaki Naruto."

At the mention of the blonde vessel's name, many of the civilian council-members began yelling. Ifrit noticed that all the clan members, save for head of the Uchiha Clan, who too was yelling, remained passive. He took that moment to study each clan head, hoping to game some helpful hints toward their personal view of Naruto.

Hyuga Hiashi, while retaining his cold, stoic expression, was shifting very slightly in his seat, leading Ifrit to believe he was nervous about the boy. Glancing down the row he saw Yamanaka Inoichi, Akimichi Choza, and Nara Shikaku looked angry at the complaining civilian members, but kept their opinions to themselves. Inuzuka Tsume looked ready to attack anyone, while Aburame Shibi looked the complete opposite, if his calm posture was any hint.

Lastly, Uchiha Fugaku, who not only was the head of the Uchiha Clan but also Chief of Konoha's Police Force, was out yelling everyone. "As Chief of this village's police, I believe this incident falls under our jurisdiction. As such, the Uchiha Clan should be allowed to foresee that proper justice is done!"

"If that was the case then why hasn't the Sandaime already given it to you? Why bother to call for a council meeting?" inquired Hiashi, wishing to irritate his life-long rival. "For that matter, why isn't the Sandaime here?"

"Most likely, he doesn't see fit to attend us since this is a trivial matter," remarked Koharu smoothly.

"If this is labeled trivial, then why are we here?" countered Shikaku, leaning forward some in his seat. "So far from how everyone's reacting this is far from trivial."

"Opinions will be held later," stated Homura, cutting off anymore questions. "We must decide the proper punishment for this…shinobi."

"Aren't we a bit eager to administer punishment? The Sandaime is not present nor have we heard Ifrit's reasons for attacking the orphanage," retorted Inoichi, winking at Ibiki's prized apprentice, ignoring the glares sent his way by the three old cronies.

"I agree, we should call for the Hokage before we determine anything," added Shikaku quickly.

"That beast attacked our people! He must be punished now!" screamed a civilian council member.

More arguments broke out and Ifrit was quickly losing his temper, wondering when the Sandaime would show himself. Whatever the reason, Ifrit suspected he wanted to wait until the council made a very stupid mistake. Until then, Ifrit did what he always did when his temper rose…he meditated. He stood there on his feet with his arms folded across his chest and tuned everyone out, focusing on cooling his anger and calming himself. It was a while before anyone realized he was ignoring them and probably wouldn't have…had he not closed his eyes.

"Ifrit! You will pay attention while you are before this council," snapped Koharu, who was the one that noted Ifrit's closed eyes.

He opened one eye lazily. "I'm sorry; I was tuning out the childish squabbling."

"You insolent boy!" a female council member with pink hair shrieked.

He shrugged his shoulders uncaringly.

"Enough of this!" said Danzo sternly. "We have wasted enough time. Ifrit, because of your actions and the obvious disrespect for the Council, I hereby…"

"Do nothing…" hissed Ifrit, his eyes blazing.

"…You dare?" said Danzo coldly, rising his visible eyebrow.

"You have overstepped your authority. You are no longer a registered shinobi and technically are a part of the Civilian Council half, and thus, have no authority to judge or reprimand any shinobi. Only the Hokage can pass judgment on any shinobi who is convicted of a crime, which if any part of the council has a say in this trial, it is the clans and the Hokage," stated Ifrit in a low monotone voice, unfolding his arms. "If you continue to overstep your place on the council than any conviction and your own seat on the council can be forfeited, and leading to your immediate arrest."

"Do not try and scare me with this village's laws, boy," sneered Danzo darkly. "I have held this village's laws and defended it decades long before you were born!"

Ifrit remained calm. "I do not need to try and scare you…and everyone in this room knows well that I can."

Before another uproar could be started, the Sandaime appeared in his sit with a well placed shushin. "Now, now…let's all calm down before we say something that will lead to more conflictions here."

Ifrit immediately came to attention and bowed to the Third, as did every Clan leader, with the exception of Fugaku.

"My lord Hokage," said Ifrit respectfully.

The old man waved for Ifrit to relax and made himself comfortable in his stiff chair. He took a moment to puff on his pipe while eyeing the council critically before beaming a fake smile. "I must say, I was surprised a council meeting was taking place without my knowing or anyone asking permission for one."

"…We thought it best to handle this matter and allow you to focus your attention where it belongs, on the village…and not on this," Koharu glared at Ifrit. "…this clanless shinobi."

"Oh?" uttered Sarutobi, raising his left eyebrow. "I wasn't aware the council decided to pass judgment on our non-clan shinobi." His eyes instantly switched to stern ones. "Nor do I remember giving that right to the council. I am the Hokage, after all. And it will only be the Hokage who determines the fate of his shinobi, not this council."

"But he attacked civilians, Sandaime!" the pinked haired civilian shirked loudly.

"I am aware of his actions, Akara," replied the Sarutobi, holding up a hand to keep her silent when she looked ready to yell. "And before anyone says anything else, Ifrit was ordered to investigate the orphanage by me." He narrowed his eyes at Akara, forcing the pink-haired civilian to shiver from the small amount of Killer Intent he was directing at her. "I had learned after the attack on Naruto that he was thrown out of the orphanage by a member of the staff, which led him to roam unprotected and homeless, leading to the incident." He leaned back in his chair and took another puff from his pipe. "As it turned out, the orphanage kicked him out because they were told someone would 'deal' with Naruto. Ifrit had the okay by me to use any tactic he deemed fit to learn this truth, and as for stealing any adopting scrolls, that too, was by my order."

Ifrit refrained from showing any reaction from the Sandaime's last statement. He was puzzled only for a moment why the Sandaime would lie about giving him that order, but as he thought about it, he realized the old man was giving the council an excuse to placate them from trying to revoke the adoption, at least that's what he thought would work…

"If that is the case, then I vote for the nullification of the adoption," decreed Akara, smirking as if she knew she already won.

"Denied," said Sarutobi sternly, raising a hand up to keep the silence. "I have personally already signed the adoption papers, making them official and as of now, Uzumaki Naruto is protected under my shinobi law and rights as his legal guardian is a Tokubetsu Jonin." Sarutobi smirked to himself as he took another puff from his pipe. "Also, as Ifrit has no clan and has become the adopted parent of the only Uzumaki heir, he will now be officially clan leader until Naruto has come of age to take the title. Thereby, _Uzumaki _Ifrit will now have a seat in this council and have all clan rights, as well."

"This is total bull!" screamed Tsume, snarling at Sarutobi.

This caught Ifrit slightly by surprise, as far from his reports from Raven and his own observation of the Inuzuka Clan leader, she was quite friendly toward the boy.

"Tsume, do not bring up that matter up right now. I explained my reasons and those reason still imply," said Sarutobi with commanding force.

She slammed her fists on her table and pointed a clawed finger at Ifrit. "That boy is barely a man! Plus, he has no clan relations of any kind! Why would you allow someone like him to adopt the Uzumaki boy!"

Now Ifrit was really lost. He was used to people insulting him for his background and the fact he belonged to no clan, but to have the Inuzuka leader act so hostile about it baffled him some. Her past history and personnel report would have led him to believe she'd be all for someone taking in the blonde, just for his own protection from the ignorant fools in the village. He surmised that Raven and himself would need to update their information and revaluate every clan leader in the village and soon.

"I have my reasons, Tsume, as I'm sure you will understand once you've calmed down. Now please sit and let us end this pointless meeting now," stated Sarutobi, giving her a stern look that forced the Inuzuka heiress to back down.

She sat back in her sit but her glare was pointed directly at Ifrit, who acted completely unbothered by it.

"Now then, as I've stated that Ifrit was under my orders to investigate the orphanage, and to adopt Uzumaki Naruto, the matter is now closed permanently," informed Sarutobi, nodding to confirm the topics were now finalized. "Ifrit, you are free to go, as are the respected clans, but I wish for the civilian portion to remain…I have a few more words to discuss about calling a council meeting without my knowledge." The glare he sent, along with an impressive amount of KI, sent shivers up the civilian half of the council.

Ifrit bowed to the Sandaime. "By your leave." He calmly walked out of the council chamber, noting that Tsume was quickly working her way toward him. Curious, he settled on a normal pace as he exited the Hokage's Tower and wasn't surprised when hands with elongated nails that looked too much like claws grabbed him and slammed him into a wall.

"Greetings, Tsume-sama," said Ifrit neutrally.

"Shut it, you dick!" growled Tsume, tightening her hold on him. "You're going to tell me why Sarutobi let you adopt the blonde!"

Ifrit merely shrugged. "Because no one else wanted to take care of the boy, and with the recent attempts to on the boy, Sarutobi thought it wise to appoint a guardian to watch over him." He locked his bizarre eyes on hers. "And no one else in this village cared to see that he was looked after."

Tsume bared her teeth at him and looked ready to rip into him. "You little shit! I was the first to try and adopt that boy!"

This seemed to be a day full of surprises for Ifrit. Once more he was left with a feeling of confusion, and it actually showed on his otherwise stoic face. "…The first?"

His confused expression must have been infective as it soon appeared on Tsume's. "Didn't the Hokage tell you about the number of times I and some of the other clan heads tried to adopt the blonde into our clans to protect him? There were so many times, he finally forbidden us from helping the boy!"

Ifrit slowly shook his head, looking very lost at the moment. "…All I knew was that none of the clans would take the boy in because of political fear or that it might cause a civil war." His stoic mask fell back down in full force, but his eyes held a spark of fury. "I believe you and I need to discuss this…somewhere more privately."

The sudden look of anger in his eyes startled the Inuzuka heiress, but she was a veteran shinobi and leader of one of the strongest clans in Konoha, allowed her to keep her snarled face from showing it. She let go of Ifrit and the apprentice nodded his thanks.

"Let's go to my compound, we'll have plenty of privacy there," offered Tsume.

"Sorry, but I'm not comfortable around dogs," replied Ifrit. "Not to mention your nin-dogs at the compound..."

"What makes you say that?" asked Tsume curiously.

"Dunno, they always start barking like mad whenever I'm close by," replied Ifrit as he shrugged.

"Huh...I'll have to find out why later...so where do we-!" she never finished her sentence as Ifrit had touched her shoulder and shushined them both back to his apartment.

"Warn me before you do that," growled Tsume, snarling somewhat at the teenager. "What kinda shushin was that anyway? Made my stomach almost flip inside out!" She moaned some as she tried to keep her last meal in her rebelling stomach.

"Doesn't matter right now. Besides, my apartment is safer, I placed silencing seals in it to keep unwanted listeners from hearing anything," said Ifrit, walking up the stairs.

"Why would you have those seals in your apartment?" wondered Tsume, following him up the stair to his apartment.

"Simple, I'm a shinobi, first and foremost," replied Ifrit as if she asked him a silly question. "And like any shinobi, we want to keep our secrets to ourselves. Besides...this is the civilian district...and I have nosy neighbors." As he mentioned that last part, he pointed right at a window where an old lady was peeking at them from behind her blinds.

Tsume snarled at the old lady and she immediately stopped peeping on them. "Okay, I'll buy that."

Ifrit had just reached for the doorknob when his eyes narrowed and sighed. "You can come out, ANBU."

"What ANBU? I don't smell...wait," uttered Tsume before her nose twitched.

As soon as he was detected, an ANBU with spiky, white hair wearing a dog mask appeared to their vision after a poof of smoke. "How'd you know I was there?"

Ifrit's eyes flashed for a moment. "You're amusement gave you away. You forget, Inu-san, I can detect emotions with these eyes."

Inu rubbed the back of his neck in embarrassment, then chuckled to himself. "Ah, yeah, I did forget that...or did I?"

Ifrit rolled his eyes at his lie. "Whatever, so what are you here for?"

"The Hokage wanted me to make sure Naruto was safe while you were gone," answered Inu. "Nothing more."

"You're lying but I can guess the real reason," grumbled Ifrit, opening his door. "Come on, let's get inside before my neighbors...What the?"

He no sooner opened the door when a blonde blur charged out and slammed into him.

"You're back, Ifrit-san!" exclaimed a happy Naruto, who was now hugging Ifrit's entire head. "AND I FEEL BETTER!"

Ifrit mumbled something but it was too muffled by the blonde's body to hear clearly. Tsume and Inu chuckled some at the scene. Right then, Raven came out, wearing a field medic-nin outfit that was completely black which consisted of a black-tight shorts and sleeveless top with fish-net running down her arms and legs, and the typical black sandals, and with her permanent genjutsu over her to hide her real features.

"Sorry, Ifrit. Naruto heard you and got excited and ran before I could stop him," apologized Raven, then went quiet when she saw the Inuzuka clan-leader and Inu. She respectfully bowed to Tsume and grunted at Inu.

"Hey, what was that about?" asked Inu, sounding hurt in a playful manner.

Raven ignored him, addressing Tsume. "It's an honor to meet you."

Tsume waved it off. "Don't girl. I hate formalities and people that use them all the time. Just call me Tsume, okay?"

Raven relaxed and smiled in approval. "All right, then let's get in...before our nosy old maid hears any more of our conversation."

Tsume and Raven whipped their heads and glared at the old biddy that had once more returned to peek through her blinds. Seeing the death-glares aimed at her, she once more retreated away from her window. Raven rolled her eyes and helped Ifrit back up, who was struggling to get Naruto off his head.

"Naruto, it's not nice to strangle your guardian," reprimanded Raven, trying to unwrap Naruto's surprisingly strong arms.

"Heh, heh! Sorry, I'm just happy Ifrit-san is back!" beamed Naruto, then hugged Ifrit's head all the more, and oddly, a soft purring sound emitted from the boy.

"Is...is he purring?" gawked Tsume.

Ifrit, although found he liked the affection, wasn't used to such a warm interaction and gently forced Naruto's arms off him. Then held the boy at arm's length, then began rolling his neck, trying to get the stinging to stop as Naruto's tackle had been really strong.

"That kinda hurt, Naruto," grumbled Ifrit, glaring at Naruto but soon softened when the blonde smiled sheepishly. "Come on, let's talk inside...before the whole building decides to try and listen on us."

They all entered the apartment and both Tsume and Inu gave blank stares at the lack of decorations in the living room.

"Not much for entertaining, are you?" murmured Inu, only to receive glares from both Raven and Ifrit. "But very...er, roomy!"

Naruto snickered at the remark as Ifrit growled lightly and motioned them to the couch. Tsume was the only one who sat and took Naruto from Ifrit and placed him on her knee, bouncing him some, in which he giggled and clung onto her. Tsume beamed down at the boy, ruffling his spiky hair, letting her maternal instincts kick in and act as she did with her own young son, Kiba.

"You're so cute, Naruto. Cuter than Kiba is, and that's saying something as he's just so adorable looking," remarked Tsume, not in the least caring that everyone else was seeing her motherly side. She was a mother, after all, and she had wanted to take Naruto into her clan as one of her own pups since the whole messy ordeal with the Kyuubi. She kept petting his blond locks and admired how soft they felt. "Wow, my daughter, Hana and I would have killed to have hair this soft!"

Naruto wasn't accustomed to the attention thanks to his upbringing in the orphanage, which did everything to starve him of human contact. No one other than the Hokage and now Ifrit and Raven had given this kind of affection, but he liked it and started purring as he did with Ifrit to her petting.

"Kawaii!" giggled Tsume, not being able to help herself, then hugged the purring blonde close to her, just finding him adorable. "Kami, I wish the old fart would have let me adopted you, Naruto. Then I could have hugged you whenever I liked!"

This immediately caught the attention of the blonde she was current giggling over. "Y-You wanted to adopt me? W-Why didn't you then?"

This brought a heavy silence in the room, mostly from Raven, who looked ready to snatch the boy from Tsume. Ifrit hadn't missed her body action and rested a hand on her shoulder, stopping her before she did try anything. Inu just remained silent as he too observed the girl's reaction, noting it for later when he made his full report to the Hokage about her, glad that she was protective of the little blonde. Tsume was silent because of the guilt she felt. The guilt that grew in her when she didn't fight hard enough to keep Naruto out of danger or fought the old man that was their Hokage into letting her adopt him.

It was Ifrit that broke the silence. "Tsume, tell us why you couldn't."

Inu stiffened and looked about to make a remark, but he was silenced when Ifrit brought his glowing eyes down on him. Not wishing to be forced to experience whatever emotion Ifrit choose to flood him with, he remained quiet.

Tsume sighed and hugged Naruto once more. "Because of all the political bull that the civilians in the council have pulled. They've made things so..." she bit her lip as she just remembered she was holding a child in her arms, she would have clawed her own tongue out had she said the cuss word that she wanted to say in front of the blonde. Being a mother for so long, she developed some of the normal habits that all mothers got when they took the job, one of them was never swearing around their children, or allowing them to hear such words. Rephrasing her sentence, she continued, using a line from the Nara Clan. "Troublesome..."

"Haven't they always?" remarked Ifrit, grunting in annoyance.

"I still don't get why the Sandaime let those fools have more say about village affairs. They're only civilians, they're not putting their necks out on the line like we do..." growled Tsume.

"I do, but I'll refrain from making any further remarks about it," replied Ifrit blankly. "Please, continue."

"Anyway, the Sandaime forbid anyone from the clans to adopt the boy...stating that if anyone did, they'd bring the downfall of Konoha," growled Tsume, returning to petting the poor confused blonde. "He just didn't want to deal with a civil war breaking out and busting the skulls that needed to be cracked."

"So...he basically kept Naruto from being adopted to prevent the village from tearing itself apart," surmised Ifrit, the room suddenly heating up as his anger rose. "As much as I can see the logical reason for him pulling that stunt, I disagree with the action. He shouldn't have forbidden the clans from taking in the boy."

"Now there you are wrong, Ifrit," said Inu, stepping forward. "The Hokage was thinking about the good of the village when he made that choice. We were severely weakened when...well, when we were attacked by _it_." He ignored the heated glare Ifrit shot him as he mentioned the fox. "If the Hokage didn't take action, then we would have been thrown into a civil war, weakening us further and letting ourselves be open for an attack by anyone."

"You will pardon my harshness, but he picked the easy way of dealing with the problem," replied Ifrit coldly.

"Careful, Ifrit," warned Inu seriously.

Ifrit just glared at him further. "It's still the truth , no matter any other facts. But I don't want to get pulled into a political debate, at least not around Naruto." Ifrit came over to him and patted his head. "He's had enough coming at him, the last thing he needs is to be hearing this stuff."

"It's okay, Ifrit-kun!" replied Naruto. "I wanna know why no one could adopt me until now."

Tsume was the only one that showed the sadness they all felt, as Inu was wearing his dog mask, thereby hiding any facial expression he could be making at that time. Ifrit and Raven both had their emotionless expressions on out of habit.

"Sorry, kid...but this is something that you won't be told about until you're older," answered Ifrit, patting his head once more.

"Why not?" pouted Naruto childishly.

"Because, you need to trust us for now," replied Ifrit softly. "I promise, you will find out the truth about everything one day, just not today."

Naruto looked ready to argue the point but then his azure eyes glazed with a wisdom not fit for someone his age and he nodded slowly. "Okay, Ifrit-kun...I'll wait."

Ifrit sighed inwardly, once more forced to witness what the villagers had done to a small child. He should have been yelling and screaming and demanding he'd be told, as any child in his position should have. Instead, he took his word and actually thought about it and deemed it was improper to challenge it, deciding to honor his choice and wait until the time was right; like someone twenty years older than him would have done. As much as Ifrit was glad Naruto could see his reason, he hated that he was robbed that childish right to fight about it.

His musing was interrupted when Tsume turned to Raven. "So...are you his girlfriend?"

Raven stared at him blankly with her cold, emotionless eyes. "We were on the same team."

"Oh? Who else was on your team?" asked Inu.

"His name was Garth," answered Ifrit. "He was lost during the Kyuubi attack...and sadly ending our squad."

Tsume and Inu saw the look of loss that past through Ifrit and Raven's eyes at the mention of their lost teammate, one Inu wished he hadn't made them remember. Many squads lost their teammates or their entire squad when the Nine-Tailed Fox attacked Konoha, some retiring as soon as the demon had been defeated as the loss of their teammates was too much for them to continue their career as shinobi.

"He was clarified Missing-In-Action when he was sent to help evacuate some civilians that hadn't left in time when the Kyuubi first reached the gates," said Ifrit softly. "No one could find his body after the attack...and in truth, there wasn't enough people to conduct a proper search for all the missing men and women once the fox attacked. Too many were more concerned about...other things." Once more the heat in the room rose as Ifrit's eyes gleamed darkly, then he blinked and the temperature returned to normal.

Both Jonin and ANBU thought. '_Never get on this guy's bad side...'_

Tsume chose to break the ice by changing the subject. "Is when you became an apprentice to Ibiki?"

"It was after that," Ifrit replied. "The Fourth Hokage had personally suggested that I was suited well in the T&I force in ANBU…mainly because of my rare Dojutsu."

"I've heard of it but not sure how it works exactly," Tsume said.

A very faint grin appeared on Ifrit's face as he leveled his eyes on her. "…Believe me, you don't ever wish to, Tsume."

It took a lot to unnerve the Inuzuka Matriarch and more because of the hard life she's had…but being under this teenager's gaze made her feel very small and frail. She unconsciously bared her canines and almost started to growl in warning. Ifrit flicked his eyes slightly to the side and his grin looked to almost grow just a little.

"My eyes are perfect for interrogating and extracting information from even the most seasoned shinobi. Of course, I've never had the chance to try them on someone like a Kage or even one of Sannin, so I don't know how well it might work one someone of their level," Ifrit said, then his eyes flickered a soft red.

Tsume calmed her nervousness down and cleared her throat. She wasn't a woman that liked to feel weak, even for a moment, her status as Alpha in her clan demanded she be strong and never back down. Only time she could ever see herself ever in a submission was if she ever found a…

Her train of thought was interrupted when a knock came from the door.

"Oh for Kami's sake. Not another ANBU," Ifrit grumbled.

"How'd you know it's an ANBU?" Inu inquired, raising his eyebrow from behind his mask.

"Because no one else ever comes to our residence," Ifrit answered curtly, marching over to the door, pulling out a red kunai from his coat's sleeve.

Seeing his caution, Inu and Tsume tensed and readied themselves for whatever danger might happen.

Ifrit opened the door and true enough it was another ANBU operative. Thankfully, it was one that Ifrit was well acquainted with and sighed inwardly and put his kunai away."Yes, Neko-san?"

"Sorry for all the running around you're going through today, Ifrit," a female ANBU agent with a cat mask said, waving apologetically. "But the Sandaime requests that you return to his office one more time. He has an important clan matter he wants to discuss with you."

"Clan matters?" Raven uttered, eyeing Ifrit questionably.

Ifrit frowned and sighed. "The Sandaime has re-instated the Uzumaki clan and placed a seat in the Clan Council, appointing me as the head of the Clan until Naruto reaches appropriate age to take over as rightful clan head."

Her eyes narrowed to near slits at him. He sighed deeply, knowing the 'talk' they were going to have once their guests were gone.

He turned to Neko. "I'll report to his office immediately." Neko chuckled, already noticing that he was in trouble with Raven. "I'll go and tell him you're on your way." She shushined away after waving good-bye.

Tsume stood up and handed Naruto over to Raven, who took him eagerly into her arms, and walked over to Ifrit. "I'll go with you, Ifrit. I'd like to discuss some things with the Hokage myself."

"As you wish," Ifrit replied, placing his hand on her shoulder and the two shushined a swirl of red flames.

Inu stared at the spot. "What kind of shushin was that?"

"A special kind that only Ifrit can do," Raven stated, hugging Naruto close to her and petting his hair. "Let's get you settled in now, Naruto. With all the excitement, I didn't think to start getting a room set up for you."

"My own room?" Naruto said in awe.

"Yes, Naruto," Raven said softly, understanding his reaction and smiling sadly in her mind. "Once Ifrit comes back, we'll see to getting you a bed and everything you'll need."

Naruto cheered for joy and hugged her very endearingly. "THANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOU!"

Raven returned his affection by patting him on the head, smiling ever so faintly down at him.

* * *

A swirl of fire appeared in front of the Hokage's office, dissipating and showing Ifrit and Tsume now standing there.

Tsume clutched at her stomach. "That doesn't feel like any shushin I'm familiar with…or a healthy one to use for that matter."

Ifrit didn't answer back as walked straight into the office without knocking first. Sarutobi, not expecting the sudden arrival from his summons, yelped somewhat and quickly hid an orange book in his desk's drawer as fast as he could, making it look as if he was looking for tobacco for his pipe. As soon as he opened the drawer that did have his tobacco, he reached for his already full pipe and made a show of filling it and lighting it and soon taking a puff from it to steady his nerves.

"Ah, Ifrit. I'm glad you got here quickly," he said, his sharp eyes quickly taking note of Tsume who had followed behind him into the office. "Tsume-san? What is this unexpected visited for?"

Before the Inuzuka clan leader could say a word, Neko appeared in the office and did a double-take when she saw Ifrit was already there.

"Wow, when did you get so fast?" Neko wondered in awe.

"No one's ever bothered to find out," Ifrit answered shortly, drawing this attention back to the Hokage. "You wished to speak of clan matters, Hokage-sama?"

"Yes, Ifrit. I need to inform you that you officially have been made the Uzumaki clan head," Sarutobi said, picking up a scroll and tossing it to the young interrogator, who nimbly caught it in the air. "…As well as all the duties you will have to perform your clan is very small."

Ifrit sighed heavier than he has yet in his life. "…Understood, Hokage-sama."

"Wait, do you mean…?" Tsume gasped, staring in shock at the newly appointed Uzumaki clan leader.

"Indeed it does, Tsume-san. Ifrit will have to perform this duty as will Naruto once he is of proper age to help build their clan as he will become the clan leader once he's of age," Sarutobi confirmed.

"...Pardon my intrusion into this discussion, Hokage-sama…but are you referring to the CRA?" Neko asked timidly, feeling bold and ashamed for asking her leader to answer her question.

Sarutobi didn't look bothered at all by her curious nature. "Yes, it does, Neko. Ifrit will have to marry multiple wives, a minimum of three. Same with Naruto, once he comes of age, earlier on should he become a shinobi of Konoha."

"He will become a shinobi of Konoha, one of this village will be sorry for mistreating and see him as he has always been" Ifrit stated with conviction, boring into his leader's eyes with determination.

The old man smiled and felt a weight he had not realized was there on his shoulders be lifted from him. "…Thank you, Ifrit. I will see to what I can in aiding the development of your clan, but we'll talk about the details later. I'm sure you want to get back to Naruto."

"Then I take my leave," Ifrit said quickly and shushined out of the office.

"…I wonder how he learned to do that with the shushin?" Sarutobi marveled to himself as he watched the last flicker of fire disappear.

"I wondered that myself…but now, Hokage-_sama_ you are going to answer some of my questions…like the little white lie you told about anyone adopting Naruto," Tsume said oh-so-sweetly, smiling and baring her fangs.

Sarutobi gulped, already formulating how he was going to get out of this one alive and with all his body parts attached. He may be the strongest shinobi in the village, her superior…but no man in heaven or earth can stand and face a woman's wrath.

* * *

Ifrit returned to his apartment to find Raven sitting with Naruto on her lap and making out what he guessed might be a shopping list. He hadn't even spoken a word when Raven locked her eyes on him, giving him a look that he clearly understood that he was in serious trouble. At least, until she noticed the scroll in his hand.

"What did the Hokage give you?" Raven asked somewhat roughly.

"…My title and duties as Clan head," Ifrit said softly. "And yes, he has put me and Naruto under the CRA…"

He had expected to be blasted from the spot, to be harmed in some violent way, or to see her get upset over the news he had just received. He had expected to be put under the CRA rule when the Hokage declared him Clan leader, and he understood just what it all entitled and how it will do to hinder their real mission in Konoha. What he didn't expect was for Raven to calm return to making out her list.

"We're going to need more things then," Raven said.

"Wait, what for?" Ifrit asked dumbly, wondering why he was still alive and not harmed.

"For our wedding, Ifrit," Raven said simply. "I'm not going to allow any other woman be your first wife if I can help it...Or do you think differently?" Her eyes glinted with a hint of red.

That look sent a shiver of worry about his spine. "N-No! I wholeheartedly agree with you, Raven-chan!"

"Good, now go out and get groceries. We'll need more since we're supporting a child now, I'll handle what he will need in terms of wardrobe and furniture," Raven stated, more like commanded.

"I want everything in orange!" Naruto voiced his desire.

"Orange? Umm, we'll see what we can do, maybe not entirely orange, but we'll get you something decent," Raven said diplomatically, not wanting to go into a room entirely of orange, as it was one of her least favorite colors…it didn't help that she had spotted an ungodly shade of it on a child's jumpsuit one time when she went shopping. The very thing made her ill the moment her eyes landed on the thing, and she would rather have struded naked in the streets in board daylight than see her appointed 'son' wear such a monstrosity. She shifted her gaze back at Ifrit. "Well? Aren't you going?"

"Er…umm, yes, I'm going," Ifrit said dejectedly, not really sure what just happened. He stalked over to Inu and grabbed him by his spiky hair.

"Ah! What's the deal!" Inu squirmed.

"You're helping me get everything, I'm getting tired and since you don't seem to be doing much, you get to help me carry stuff back here," Ifrit stated in a commanding tone, his eyes flashing threateningly.

"Er…r-right, sorry, I gotta be somewhere else at the moment, ciao!" Inu quickly said before shushining out of the young man's hand.

Ifrit groaned, cursing the silver-haired ANBU, then stepped out of the door with a small smile graced upon his thin, pale lips. "…This may all just go according to your plan, Minato-sensei."

* * *

**A/N:** And there we have it. The Uzumaki clan is reborn….and with it, the death of that horrible jumpsuit! I wish to thank Kri-Ifrit for being my beta-reader and that we have become good friends, so everyone thank her for she's keeping me off WoW and getting some actual work done!

Mika, this one goes out to you, too.

_Till then…_


End file.
